PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL DONAHUE
Jake Schorr and Kris Snoke
The iconic Hot Fudge Pie at Westy’s is, in a word, delicious. More than just a dessert, this over-the-top plate is an experience. The chocolate confection is topped with French vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and a chocolate drizzle. It’s “fudge” because the pie is heated before the ice cream and toppings are piled high.
“I grew up eating chocolate icebox pie and brownies that my mother made,” says Westy’s owner Jake Schorr. “Homemade brownies. And they were great.”
He wanted an unusual dessert on the menu when he owned the old Jefferson Square back in the late ’70s. He thought, “Everybody has got a brownie. Why don’t I make something different and make it a key dessert? I had no idea what it was going to be. I started putting this together.”
He’d never owned a restaurant before Jefferson Square. “I wasn’t educated in cooking,” he says. “I was educated in making mistakes at this point.”
“The whole idea was to make something that wasn’t around, and to satisfy my yearning for vanilla ice cream and chocolate that other people would appreciate. Turned out we got it.” — Jake Schorr
Schorr wanted to use French vanilla ice cream, reminiscent of the ice cream his uncle served him when Schorr was a child.
The “pie” was more complicated. Schorr baked chocolate brownie pies for months, trying to come up with the right one.
He needed to achieve harmony among the flour, eggs, sugar, chocolate, and vanilla to complement the French vanilla ice cream.
Kris Snoke, a friend who later worked as a cook for Schorr, tried the evolving versions. “More or less, once a week she would come in and I’d have this version of the pie ready.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL DONAHUE
Mr. Donahue strongly recommends eating the Hot Fudge Pie indoors when it’s 97 degrees outside.
Snoke would taste it and put in her two cents. “I was the taste tester,” Snoke says. Schorr “wanted hot fudge and it had to be fudgy and gooey in the middle.”
Schorr made his brownies a few times a week, Snoke recalls. “Occasionally, I helped him and talked about different things he could add. I could not tell you how many months it went on. At that time, I didn’t gain weight.”
One night, Snoke tasted the latest dessert. “It melted in my mouth. And I said, ‘You hit it.’ Everything was just perfect. He got the combination of the fudge and the flour down perfectly — where the textures were just ideal.”
“The whole idea was to make something that wasn’t around,” says Schorr, “and to satisfy my yearning for vanilla ice cream and chocolate that other people would appreciate. Turned out we got it.”
Schorr gave samples to his Jefferson Square customers, who liked it. “I was very, very fortunate. It’s one of those rare things in life that happen.”
The pie moved with him to Schorr’s new restaurant, The North End, after Jefferson Square burned to the ground during the early morning hours of the day after Halloween, 1983. When new owners bought the North End, Schorr kept the dessert when he opened his new place, Westy’s.
As for his Hot Fudge Pie’s popularity, Schorr says, “We have a number of desserts, but from year to year it’s either the top-selling item or the second top-selling item.”
The price has increased over the years. It was $1.79 at Jefferson Square. Now, it sells for $6.39, “and getting ready to go up,” Schorr says. Most customers agree it’s worth every penny — and more.
Westy’s is at 346 North Main.
