Betty poses with servers at the new Betty’s Pies restaurant. Clockwise
around Betty from bottom left are Samantha Johnson, Chrissy Pearson, Camilla
Norman, Roma Clarin, Lori Patterson and Lori Bustrom. Photo
by BRUCE OJARD
In 1956, Betty Lessard was living in Duluth, Minnesota,
and making good progress toward her career in photography. She had no inkling
that a proposition that year by her father, Aleck Christiansen (of H. Christiansen
& Sons fish company), would change the course of her life and would
leave her rolling in dough for the next 28 years.
Her profession in photography never did develop, but in her work as “pie
lady,” Betty - yes, that Betty of Betty’s Pies near Two Harbors
- is second to none.
“Since I retired in 1984, I’ve been amazed how many times people recognize
me or see my license plate (which says ‘Pielady’) and they ask if I’m Betty
from Betty’s Pies. Well, I am Betty and I still enjoy meeting and
talking with them.
 “On
a trip to Montana, I had two women stop me in a motel parking lot to ask
if I was Betty from Betty’s Pies. It turned out they were nurses from the
Twin Cities who often visited the north shore and stopped at Betty’s Pies
regularly. That sort of thing always makes me feel like I made the right
decision to give up photography and begin baking. Certainly when I see
what that little business has become through the years, I’m proud that
I had a part in making it happen.”
Photo by BRUCE OJARD
Betty Lessard gamely dons shades and gets spoof treatment from Colder
by the Lake comedy troupe.
Sometimes what pie fans don’t understand is why Betty isn’t always baking
on the north shore.
“A lady at an antique show in Chicago recognized me and asked why I was
sitting at an antique booth instead of being at the pie shop where I belonged!”
It all started the year that her father asked Betty if she’d run the family’s
roadside smoked fish shack at the Stewart River east of Two Harbors.
Betty had always felt sorry for the previous operator, Captain Andy Jorgenson,
as he sat by the hour waiting for business in a little 8-foot-by-8-foot
structure beside the road. The family started Andy’s Smoked Fish Shack
in part to give Captain Andy something to do after their commercial fishing
operation was sold.
 Reluctantly,
Betty agreed to try out the operation for a couple of weeks to see how
she liked it.
From humble beginnings in a wayside fish shack, Betty
Lessard built a thriving business and a “yummy” reputation.
“I guess I must have liked the job pretty well,” she laughs. “I was still
there 28 years later, by which time I was serving thousands of north shore
visitors food at Betty’s Pies.”
Before she retired in 1984, Betty would bake tens of thousands of pies,
during peak season averaging 100 a day (“all rolled individually,” says
Betty).
“I would start at 3 a.m. and at 7 p.m. I’d say, ‘That’s enough.’”
But that’s jumping ahead. First she started with fish. It didn’t take long,
though, to decide that she needed to offer more than just smoked fish and
crackers served on wrapping paper through a window to customers who ate
at picnic tables. Betty added donuts and coffee. She put in a small used
gas grill to make hamburgers and to heat the water that she hauled from
a well on the hill behind the shack. Business improved and later that summer
she added hot dogs. She and husband Lloyd bought china and silverware to
replace the disposable cups that, Lloyd said, “were just throwing money
away.”
“I found myself with spare time and began doing some baking, even though
the tiny stand was getting pretty crowded by that time,” Betty recalls.
“We built the first of five additions - enough space to enlarge the kitchen
and install a lunch counter so customers could come in and sit down to
enjoy their food.”
 Eventually,
smoked fish sales dropped off and it was taken off the menu. Fresh trout
dinners made their debut. At the same time, the operation changed to the
name Betty’s Cafe and Betty began doing much more baking.
“A slice of fresh strawberry pie with whipped cream was 35 cents. My dad
and mom spent almost every Saturday afternoon cleaning at least six crates
of berries so I’d have enough for our Sunday business. It was getting busy
and we continued to expand, but we never seemed to have enough space on
busy weekends during summer.”
Summers weren’t the only busy time. “Smelters” arrived in May for the annual
river spawning run of the small fish, taking thousands of tons of the fish
and creating havoc where the run was most active. It changed the way Betty’s
Cafe did business in spring.
Early on Betty’s Cafe became a required north shore wayside
stop for travelers.
“We decided we had to stay open 24 hours a day on weekends during smelt
season to protect our property,” Betty says. “Smelters would take anything
that would burn for their riverside fires and we lost the roof of our pumphouse,
the front steps of the restaurant and even caught them trying to take our
flower boxes for firewood!
“By staying open, we at least protected our property.”
Although fresh trout was the main menu item, it was Betty’s pies that became
the legend as happy customers spread the news by word-of-mouth. Eventually,
since everyone already called it “Betty’s Pies” (as in, “You’ve got to
stop at Betty’s Pies”), the name of the cafe was simply changed to that.
Even as her baked goods blossomed business, Betty always tried to take
time to greet customers. She filled her day with baking pies and talking
to customers.
 First-time
customers often queried staff, trying to ferret out the Betty from
among them. So her staff adopted “I’m not Betty” buttons to stave off the
inevitable question. Naturally, Betty’s own “I Am Betty” button became
an open invitation for customers to stop and chat.
Many of her most satisfying memories are of meeting customer needs - be
it a visit to the outdoor “facilities” or a special food request. She tried
to accommodate even the unreasonable demand.
“One fellow went into great detail about how he wanted his eggs cooked
a special way with cottage cheese,” Betty laughs. “I had never heard of
such a thing and knew I’d never please him, so I offered to let him into
the kitchen and give him whatever he needed to do his eggs his way. He
looked at me kind of funny and said, ‘Oh, well, cook them however you want.’
I did and he didn’t have any complaint … but he didn’t get cottage cheese
with his eggs, either.”
Once, Betty recalls, by not accommodating a customer she ended up pleasing
him.
 “A
fellow came in who told me to just forget the rye bread for his sandwich,
since he’d never tasted rye bread he liked. I told him it was the only
bread we used and he shrugged and said, ‘Well, use it then.’ He ate every
bite and told me afterward, ‘That’s the best bread I’ve ever tasted.’”
The loyalty of thousands of customers trooping into her establishment was
among the most rewarding part of the work for Betty, even though their
dining pleasure kept her hopping. By the 25th anniversary of the business
in 1981, her friend June Huerlin calculated that Betty had baked 60,560
pies (423,920 pieces), 389,700 donuts, 175,000 cookies and 81,900 loaves
of rye bread. Betty would rack up three more hectic years in the ever-busy
kitchen before selling the business.
 Little
wonder, then, that Betty now relishes retirement. She still bakes, but
also has traveled, shown a prize-winning schnauzer and enjoys the companionship
of three of the personable dogs. After sale of the restaurant, part of
the property was acquired by the state for improvements to Highway 61.
For a time the future of the business was uncertain, but then it was resold
to new owners, Carl Ehlenz and Marti Sieber. They built a new, larger restaurant
to handle increasing crowds and asked Betty to review the pie and other
recipes to recapture the quality for which Betty’s Pies gained its national
reputation.
She often visits and advising at the restaurant is a lot like being a grandmother.
“I think it’s the same principle,” says Betty.
“It’s fun to go in, help out and then be able to walk away when I’m done.
For 28 years, every waking moment during the summer was devoted to the
business and I loved it, but this is fun too, because I feel part of it,
but not responsible for everything.”
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