Let’s Eat, Mississippi: Tom’s Fried Pies

• If you’ve never had a fried hand pie, then head to Richland and grab a savory or sweet treat, or both.

Tucked away in the corner of a shopping center on Highway 49 in Richland is a place where your taste buds will get a pleasant surprise. If you’ve never had a fried hand pie, then the folks at Tom’s Fried Pies are waiting to introduce you to this Southern staple. 

Tom’s Fried Pies has been serving up both savory and sweet pies, perfect for lunch, dinner, or a serious snack to Richland residents since 2011, but with the major improvements on Highway 49, travelers have also discovered the pies. They are the ideal road food – no fork or knife needed – and they transport and re-heat well. 

Of course, every good Southern eatery has a backstory, and Tom’s Fried Pies has a good one. Curtis Ray Cook and his wife, Lillie, lived in Kentucky. The couple had twelve children. Curtis Ray worked in the coal mines to keep all those mouths fed, and each day, Lillie filled his lunch pail with the meat and fruit pies she got up early each morning to fry. Both delicious and filling, it wasn’t long before the pies came up missing from his pail. It seems his co-workers liked Lillie’s pies. The only way Curtis Ray was going to have his lunch was for Lillie to send enough pies for the other miners. He began taking orders, and Lillie fried pies to sell at the coal mine. 

One of the twelve children is Tom Cook. Tom was a salesman, and he sold everything from magazines to vacuum cleaners. One of his sales jobs brought him to Mississippi, where he settled and raised his family. He carried his mother’s fried pie recipe with him, and his children grew up eating them. 

He opened a take-out spot on McDowell Road in Jackson in 2011, and customers fell in love with the hand-formed pies, made the same way Lillie made them back in Kentucky. The business moved to Highway 49 South in Richland in the fall of 2022, after a fire at the original location. 

The “new” Tom’s location features dine-in seating, both indoors and on a covered patio outside, complete with cornhole games. The business is open Tuesday through Saturday, serving up a variety of pies. Open for lunch and dinner, customers can choose their favorite meat pie, including chicken and vegetable pies made with diced chicken breast in a rich cream sauce with potatoes, peas, onion, carrots, and celery. The beef and vegetable pies are made with beef in savory gravy with peas, carrots, onions, and celery. The broccoli and chicken pies have diced chicken and broccoli in a light creamy sauce with cheese and seasonings.

They also serve a Tex-Mex pie with refried beans and beef with cheddar cheese, a pizza-style pie with pepperoni and sausage with pizza sauce and cheese, and a “Roagie,” made with beef, shredded potatoes, onion, mushrooms, and cheese combined in a rich beef base.

Special pies are made seasonally, like barbecue pulled pork pies, buffalo chicken pies, and pumpkin pies. People have their favorites, but they like trying the seasonal ones, too. Typically, people make a meal out of one meat pie and one fruit pie.

The fruit pie flavors include apple, apricot, blackberry, cherry, peach, pineapple, and pecan. Cream pie flavors include chocolate, strawberry cheesecake, sweet potato, coconut, and lemon.

The business is a family affair. Tom’s daughter, Vicki, runs the place, and her daughter, Mallory, joins her when on break from attending Ole Miss. 

When you stop in, look for Mr. Tom and say hello. He’s in there most days, drinking coffee and challenging anyone who will sit down to a game of checkers.