SAN MATEO, Calif. (KGO) — What’s Thanksgiving without pie?
If you don’t want to bake one, the place to go for over half a century has been Heidi’s Pies in San Mateo.
The restaurant has 30 different flavors, from the traditional apple pie to more unique flavors like mango sour cream.
The man behind the magic is Victor Caamal.
He’s been working at Heidi’s for 55 years, as long as the restaurant has been around.
“This oven is ancient,” said Caamal as he loads pies into the huge oven. “It’s older than me.”
Caamal started working at Heidi’s Pies when he was 18 Victor after emigrating from Mexico.
He’s 74 now but it doesn’t show. If he’s not in the freezer grabbing pie shells, he’s preparing the fillings or manning the oven.
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“Some people say this is my house,” joked Caamal, as he points at the oven.
Heidi’s makes up to 150 pies a day. For Thanksgiving, they’ll make close to 6,000.
The restaurant closes its kitchen on Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for the rush. The lines to buy pie will go around the block.
Victor has to work on overdrive, as do his brothers who also work at Heidi’s.
“I have to sleep over here a little bit while I am waiting for my pies to get done. It’s tiring, 24 hours of work for two days in a row,” said Caamal.
All the different varieties of pies take different times to bake. Pecan pie takes 45 minutes, pumpkin 1.15 hours. Victor has to keep track of it all without the use of a time, which broke down long ago.
He juggles all the baking times in his head. That’s up to 120 pies rotating on six racks.
The pies are just one part of Heidi’s success — the other is family.
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Aurora Douglass has been working as a server at Heidi’s for 52 years.
“I enjoy the people. It’s like my family. I love them, my family,” said Douglass, who emigrated from Argentina in the 1970s.
Josephine Spronk-Ortiz has been around 27 years.
“We have our regular customers that we have known for 30 or 40 years,” said Spronk-Ortiz. “They love the hospitality, the food here is always great and the value.”
Customers and staff greet each other by name or with hugs.
Bill Euchner, a retired San Mateo firefighter, comes every Wednesday to meet friends, a group of retired first responders.
“Many of San Mateo police and fire have been here at least 40 years,” said Euchner.
Before COVID, Heidi’s Pies was open 24 hours a day. Peter Franceschi would come in after working the graveyard shift.
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“I’d come in at four in the morning and people were already coming in for pie. The line went out the door,” said Franceschi, who still comes in for pie and to meet friends.
But many workers did not come back when restaurants reopened, so Heidi’s cut back its hours.
It was slated to close permanently in December after the building’s owner raised the rent.
“Luckily we were able to talk to the owners and convinced them to stay,” said Spronk-Ortiz.
Heidi’s owner was able to negotiate a three-year extension, then he plans to retire.
Other workers are ready to hang up their aprons too.
That may be the end of the line for Heidi’s Pies.
But for now, customers are enjoying every morsel.
To visit Heidi’s Pies’ website, click here.
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