We went to every place in Julian that serves pies and tried them out in one day so you don’t have to. Seriously, it was a lot of pie. I don’t want to do this again. It was way too much pie. 

Recently it was my husband’s birthday, so we did something we had been wanting to do for a while: a Julian Pie Crawl!

Julian, CA is known for pies. I was surprised to find a distinct lack of literature on all the various pie shops there, so I made my own map, which I share for reference. While there are a couple of “pie power players”, most of these businesses are small and limited by awkward hours. Despite this, we planned a route to make sure we hit all eight locations I could find where we could acquire pie. The town itself is a small, tourist-trap affair. Aside from the Santa Ysabel and Wynola sites, we parked our car and walked between all the locations. (If you are lucky you can find street parking, but there is a pay lot behind the Wolf Center Visitor Center where you can pay to park by the hour or for the day that always seems to have plenty of space available when needed.)

There was no “bad” pie. I am pretty sure any bad pie would be quickly expelled by the competition. But in order of least favorite to best, here are the stops on our Julian Pie Crawl

Juliantla – 6.5/10 

Juliantla is a bit off the main drag in a cute little corner of shops. They are actually a chocolate shop, selling a variety of chocolates and teas, but they do offer one variety of vegan apple pie, so we included them. As they are a small shop, they do not offer indoor dining, but there are picnic tables nearby. They also did not offer us utensils as their slices and whole pies are packaged to take home.

The pie itself was very tart; a bit too tart for my taste. The crust was decent, however. Overall, it was not bad, but not particularly wonderful. It does have the advantage of being vegan, and the only vegan option we noted, so that is a plus for those with vegan dietary restrictions.

Golden Apple Bakery – 7.1/10

Golden Apple Bakery is on the main drag on the western edge of downtown Julian, in the historic De Luca House. It is a very hip establishment, making me feel I had been transported to a coffeehouse in Portland rather than a SoCal mountain town. Lots of people were eating some delicious looking and smelling breakfast sandwiches, and I do plan on returning to try them. [UPDATE: it appears they may be closed now.]

We were on a pie mission though, and unfortunately their pie was not close to the best. We went for a traditional apple pie, and the apples in the filling were slightly undercooked and just a little bit too crisp and tough. The crust was decently flaky and well cooked, but it was a bit bland and boring. The coffee did help it along, but I think I’ll likely stick to exploring their other menu offerings in future visits.

Julian Cafe – 7.2/10

We stopped for lunch here in a crowded historic building in the heart of downtown. Their menu is an array of comfort food, all of which looked delicious. They also have a small market section near the door that sells syrups and jams. Their is a window service where you can get slices or whole pies to go, but we joined the wait list to sit inside and get a full meal. 

This is the pie that I truly wanted to rate higher, because the filling of their traditional apple pie was absolutely the best apple pie filling I ever had. The apples were cooked to perfection, soft but not mushy, and whatever apple variety they used had a flavor that really stood out well from the sugar and cinnamon that tend to dominate apple pie fillings. It was 10/10 filling! 

Unfortunately, the crust was a less pleasant experience. It was tough and chewy. It would be a great pie crust for a savory pie, such as their signature pot pie (which I have not yet tried but I imagine is delicious), but for a fruit pie it didn’t do it for us. I haven’t tried their crumble crust, but I imagine it goes much better and I would suggest this to visitors. As I must rate the pie we ate, though, this pie unfortunately ranks in the lower half of our list. If they can get a better flaky crust, this pie ranking would soar much, much higher.

Mom’s Pies – 7.3/10

Mom’s is one of the big power players in the local pie industry. They have a large operation and ship their pies nationwide. On a busy weekend, the line can stretch all the way down the block. Indoor seating is limited, so be prepared to take your slice to go. We went on a slow January weekend, and the line was only to the door. We got a traditional apple pie with a slice of cheese. A word to the wise: don’t get cheese on a pie crawl; it is a gastrointestinal challenge, especially late in the day.

Mom’s has good pies, but they aren’t very distinguishable from your average grocery store bakery pies. Maybe it was because it was later in the day near the end of our crawl when we came here, but the pie just felt unmemorable compared to the others. While we came on a day when the line was relatively short and we got our pie within about 15 minutes and that felt acceptable, often the line is much longer, and I would not consider it worth the wait on a busier day. It’s good, and they have a lot of variety as one of the larger bakeries, but if the line is out the door I would check out your other options.

Dudley’s – 7.4/10

Dudley’s is actually in Santa Ysabel, which you will drive through to get to Julian if you are coming from the west side. They are right off Highway 78 and difficult to miss if you are driving from Ramona. We did not realize that they do not serve slices; they only have whole pies to go, and these pies must be taken home to be baked. They are a very busy bakery offering a variety of ready to eat pastries, sandwiches, and hot drinks on site, though, and in addition to pies they have several varieties of bread loaves.

We took a whole apple pie with a crumb crust home and dove into it. The filling flavors were well balanced. The crust was average but decent. I am not sure I would want to make the drive all the way out there exclusively for their pie, but if you are already in the area they’re definitely a place to stop for baked goods and hot drinks.

Julian Pie Company – 8.2/10

In the past, I thought Julian Pie Company was more mediocre, but on our crawl they were our last stop and my mouth was surprisingly happy, so they are ranked high. JPC is on the western edge of town near the brewery. Their shop is small and crowded, but they have ample outdoor seating on their patio behind the shop. They also have a separate provisions store if you are seeking whole pies to go and don’t want to wait in line for a slice. As potentially the largest pie power player in town, they also distribute to local grocery stores and you can often find their pies in various places around the county (I know Stater Brothers carries them regularly). The lines here can get insanely long; on my first visit I waited over an hour, but on this day we only waited about 15 minutes.

They were out of apple pie when we were at the counter, so we got an apple mountain berry pie with a crumb crust and cinnamon ice cream instead. Even though I was very full, that warm pie filling with that cold ice cream just hit really good. The crumble crust was well balanced, and overall it was just a good slice of pie.

Apple Alley Bakery – 8.3/10

Apple Alley Bakery is in the heart of downtown Julian in the historic Daley Building. It was the only place I noted that offers gluten-free pies. They have an actual alley with outdoor seating and were very popular among the dog-walking crowd. The line was short – in fact I can’t ever recall it being as long as the other pie shops – and we got our pie, a traditional apple pie, fairly quickly. The service was very friendly and the overall atmosphere was very relaxed and welcoming.

The pie crust was absolutely perfectly flaky and crisp with great filling. For downtown Julian proper, this was our favorite pie and is definitely the place we will recommend to people on the street the next time we visit Julian.

California Mountain Bakery – 8.5/10

We may be a bit biased, as this was the first pie we actually ate on our pie crawl, but California Mountain Bakery was our favorite. They are off Highway 78 in Wynola, which is just down the road from Julian proper. The service was friendly. Their restaurant had a sort of cozy mountain-lodge feel. They were offering some absolutely amazing-looking breakfast sandwiches on massive biscuits that I desperately want to try in the future, but we were there for pie.

We got a slice of traditional apple pie and also a slice of mango apple pie. The pie filling was great, but where they really shine is the crust. It was perfectly baked and flaky, and seasoned with just the right amount of cinnamon sugar. It was the most satisfying slice of pie we had on our pie journey and was our favorite of the entire day! When on your way to Julian, don’t sleep on the Wynola shops and make a stop here.

Bonus Side Trip: Eagle Mining Company

Even splitting slices with a partner, eight pie stops is a lot, so we took a break mid-day to visit the Eagle Mining Company. We made the short but steep trek up C street and went on the underground tour of the Eagle and High Creek mines. At $15 a pop, it’s decently affordable. You get to learn to pan for gold and then take a tour of the mine. You learn how they discovered the ore veins, what conditions were like for the miners in the late 1800’s, and how they separated gold, silver, and copper ore from the rock. It’s a fun tour (this was my second visit) and it was a great way to burn off some of the pie calories midway through the crawl.