A "Sweet" Happy Hour

The Texan Cafe in Hutto, TX (just outside of Round Rock and Austin, Texas) is offering a pretty "sweet" happy hour. From 3pm to 5pm Tuesday thru Saturday, a slice of Pie and a Non-alcoholic drink is only $3.74. Usually a slice of pie itself costs $3.75. I think more places around the U.S. that specialize in desserts, pastries, and other non-alcoholic treats will offer more Happy Hour specials to drive business to get thru this recession. Read the article below for more info.


PIE HAPPY HOUR

Not your typical happy hour
Two hours a day, Hutto cafe offers pie happy hour
By Melissa Mixon

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF


Thursday, August 14, 2008

They come from out of town, from neighboring cities. Some take a break from local jobs just to get their sugar fix.

All of them have one thing in common: the love of pie.

It's a concept that The Texan Cafe in Hutto has tapped into. From 3 to 5 p.m. every Tuesday through Saturday, the small down-home cafe offers a pie happy hour, when customers can get a slice of pie and a nonalcoholic beverage for $3.74.

During other hours at the cafe, a slice of pie costs $3.75.

It's not just the price that draws attention. It's the choices, customers say.

There's an apple pie that's served on a fajita skillet with brandy and powdered sugar. Another pie is filled with bananas and pineapples.

"They have too many choices. Every time someone comes into town, I try to get them to come here," said Sarah Lamneck, who was at pie happy hour last week for a meeting with local moms and their children.

"It's not like we can go to a regular happy hour," she said.

The cafe does serve wine and beer.

Owners of the cafe, Roger Joughin and his partner, Ron Yaudes, bought it two years ago after deciding to trade in their corporate jobs for something they consider a little more personal and laid back.

They don't have TVs in the cafe because, Yaudes said, "we want people to talk when they come in."

"We're both from Michigan, and we were brought up in families where you did a lot of car trips and you just like stopping and going into old diners," he said.

They bought the small cafe from Bud and Debbie Wheeler, a Round Rock couple who had opened it in 1996 in Frame Switch, a small stock-raising community three miles west of Taylor on U.S. 79.

The cafe didn't serve alcohol when the Wheelers owned it, and they wanted a way to attract customers when business was slow between 3 and 5 p.m.

Debbie Wheeler liked making pies, so the idea for pie happy hour was born.

"We'd bring people in for a cup of coffee and pie at a reduced price and then introduce them to our menu," she said. "It was our happy hour."

The Wheelers moved to the Hutto location in 2005 and eventually sold the cafe because it consumed too much of their time.

Now in the cafe, pies — some topped with whipped cream, chocolate chips or coconut — fill three rows of a glass display case. On the counter, hot fudge is advertised.

The pies are cooked daily starting at 8 a.m. by local women or by Joughin.

"I've seen cases where (Joughin) opens the mail at midnight and sees a magazine that has a recipe in it and he says, 'I think I'll try that tomorrow,' " Yaudes said.

The happy hour attracts from five to 25 people a day, Joughin said, and draws a variety of people including local retirees, high school students and motorcyclists just passing through town.

Pies and a drink used to sell for $3.50, but Yaudes and Joughin recently had to raise prices because of increased dairy costs and because they started using more extravagant recipes.

But that hasn't stopped people from coming.

Hutto City Manager Ed Broussard said that when his children do well on their school report cards, his wife rewards them sometimes by taking them to pie happy hour.

He has even rewarded his staff and colleagues by taking them there, he said.

In the past, when Broussard has needed a quick break from work, he has gone to happy hour for a slice of pie.

"It's a great stress reliever in the middle of the day, but it has to be a slow (work) day," he said.

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