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A selection of pies from The Bread Box

De Wese’s Tip Top Cafe is located at 2814 Fredericksburg Road.

Chocolate pecan and apple pie from Bird Bakery

Bird Bakery is located at 5912 Broadway.

Key lime and peach pies from Bobbie’s Cafe & Pie Bar.

Bobbie’s Cafe & Pie Bar is located at 6728 S. Flores St.

Radicke’s Bluebonnet Grill is located at 237 N. WW White Road.

A selection of pies from The Bread Box

A slice of chocolate meringue pie from De Wese’s Tip Top Cafe

Strawberry lemon and blueberry cornbread pies from Rooster Crow Baking Co.

There’s no better way to end a Fourth of July cookout feast of burgers and hot dogs than with a slice of pie. OK, maybe two, because who doesn’t go back for a second serving of lemon meringue, chocolate icebox or the all-American classic, apple pie?

And what we think of as pie is truly part of the backbone of American cuisine, evolving during the days of wagon trails from pielike pastries that date back to at least 5th century Greece. Settlers relied on pies as an affordable, portable and tasty source of nourishment. Because pies require less flour than bread, they could be cooked over a fire with a wide range of ingredients foraged as the seasons allowed.

With pie baked into our collective history, it’s no surprise we celebrate the Fourth with a slice.

San Antonio baker Jenn Riesman is swamped with holiday orders for the elaborate and enormous pies she bakes through her online bakery Rooster Crow Baking Co., roostercrowbakingco.com, to deliver to backyard bashes across the city.

For Riesman, pies are a way to celebrate both seasonality and sentimentality. She typically only bakes with fresh ingredients when they’re at peak ripeness for maximum flavor. In the spring, that means you’ll see strawberries all over the Instagram feed for her business. Right now, it’s plump blueberries at the center stage. Soon, the warm fall flavors of pumpkin and spice will take over.

Regardless of season, Riesman pours her heart into the flaky crusts of those pies, and hopes her customers can taste the love.

“Pies are a way to take your best ingredients and best intentions and wrap them in dough,” Riesman said. “Pie is the tastiest way to express love and affection for one another.”

On ExpressNews.com: 4 oven-free icebox pies: Margarita, chocolate, lemon and dulce de leche

And she’s certainly not the only pie game in town. Whether you’re picking up a whole pie to bring to a cookout or you just want to settle into the booth of a comfortable diner for a slice along with a cup of coffee, here are seven places for great pie in San Antonio.

Apple and chocolate pecan pies from Bird Bakery

The pies are literally personal at this Alamo Heights bakery owned by television personality Elizabeth Chambers — they’re all baked in individual 4-inch serving size tins. And they’re a big hit with Bird’s customers, so get there early in the day if you hope to find them in stock.

Bird’s chocolate pecan pie was the best pecan pie sampled for this story, with the deep and indulgent flavor of toasted nuts amplified by dark chocolate chips. The apple pie featured tangy fruit that retained a nice texture and a top crust doused with a heavy cloak of gooey caramel. Both pies had light and flaky crusts baked to a pale blond hue.

Bird Bakery, 5912 Broadway, 210-804-2473, birdbakery.com, Facebook: Bird Bakery (San Antonio)

Peach and key lime pies from Bobbie’s Cafe & Pie Bar.

It’s right there in the name. This South Side institution, which is celebrating 50 years in business this summer, takes its pie seriously. The selection wasn’t huge — only two types of pie were available on a recent Friday morning — but each bite delivered pie perfection.

The lily-white slice of Key lime pie was bracingly tart with just enough sugar and crumbly graham cracker crust to tame its potent acidity. If you’re a fan of all things sour, this was by far the most lively of the Key lime pies I sampled. The peach pie arrived looking a bit disheveled, having suffered some cracks on its way from the baking tin to the plate, but appearance hardly mattered in this slice packed with vibrant fruit encased in a flaky crust baked to a deep and aromatic brown.

Bobbie’s Cafe & Pie Bar, 6728 S. Flores St., 210-923-1158, bobbiescafe.com, Facebook: @BobbiesCafe

On ExpressNews.com: 4 pecan pie recipes for the Texas pecan season

A selection of pies from The Bread Box

Owner Tina Kent brings both whimsy and technical excellence to the pies served at this bakery in The Alley on Bitters shopping complex on Bitters in Hill Country Village, and she typically has several varieties available including, multiple cool and refreshing icebox pies. Tap into childhood nostalgia with a slice of the Orange Creamsicle icebox pie. The colorful fluff studded with marshmallows over this pie’s dense graham cracker crust tastes remarkably like the ice pops many of us enjoyed as kids.

A slice of apple pie heavily loaded with slices of Granny Smith apples that had the perfect balance of tender and chewy textures shows off this bakery’s mastery of the craft. The Key lime pie is a best-seller here, and with good reason thanks to its dense filling that sings with the acidic tartness of fresh citrus.

The Bread Box, 555 W. Bitters Road, Suite 115, 210-277-8612, thebreadboxsa.com, Facebook: @thebreadboxsa

A selection of pies from De Wese’s Tip Top Cafe

If mile-high billowing sails of meringue make your day, this venerable diner on Fredericksburg near San Antonio’s Deco District is the place to be. The pie selection varies daily here, but you’ll nearly always find at least one variety capped with comically tall meringue.

A slice of chocolate meringue pie sported a peaked dome of fluffy egg whites and sugar towering nearly a foot above its base of silken chocolate custard and a fine, flaky crust. Other slices sampled included a coconut pie with flakes of sweet coconut suspended in a smooth, eggy custard perfectly baked with a bronzed surface that added a bit of crunchy texture to each bite. The blueberry pie tasted of plump fresh fruit with a whiff of cinnamon and other warm spices.

De Wese’s Tip Top Cafe, 2814 Fredericksburg Road, 210-732-0191, Facebook: @tiptopcafesanantonio

A selection of pies from Earl Abel’s

There may be no more beloved institution for pie in San Antonio than this Pearl-area eatery. You’ll find a half-dozen or more options in the pastry case at any given time, and picking a favorite won’t be an easy task. Most of the pies here sport pale, just-cooked crusts that flake into buttery crumbles with little more than a hungry glance.

The black-bottom chocolate cream pie is a good place to start, with a base layer of soulful chocolate custard set to an almost ganachelike thickness topped with bouncy vanilla pudding and a thick layer of peaky whipped cream. The maple pecan pie is another standout here, with a creamy maple-flavored filling laced with toasted pecans under a layer of whipped cream — like the sweetest stack of pancakes you’ve ever had.

Earl Abel’s, 1639 Broadway, 210-444-9424, earlabelssa.com, Facebook: Earl Abel’s Restaurant

On ExpressNews.com: Paul's Cooking Tips: Everything you need to know about pie plates

A selection of pie from Radicke’s Bluebonnet Grill

The best thing you can bring, besides an appetite, of course, to this East Side diner near the intersection of Interstate 10 and W.W. White Road is the knowledge that the pie is going to sell out. Before you even get seated or look at the menu, check out the pie case by the front door. Your server will gladly place a fork on the plate of the slice you select to make sure your claim is staked.

The buttermilk pie was the headlining star here. It’s not a common find in San Antonio restaurants, and Radicke’s is exceptional. The simple buttermilk filling remained supple and smooth in its razor-thin crust, and the surface of the pie was baked to a craggy brown shade with oodles of texture from deeply caramelized sugar. The coconut cream pie had a good balance of chewy grated coconut and bouncy custard under a raft of whipped cream.

Radicke’s Bluebonnet Grill, 237 N. WW White Road, 210-337-4007, Facebook: Radickes Bluebonnet Grill

Blueberry cornbread and strawberry lemon pies from Rooster Crow Baking Co.

The first thing you’ll notice about Rooster Crow’s pies is just how much pie is in every pan. Owner Jenn Riesman, who made her mark on San Antonio’s culinary scene preparing desserts for the Silo family of restaurants before hanging her own shingle, packs 5 pounds or more of goodness into these hefty things. Forget kettlebells. Carrying these pies around is exercise enough.

Rooster Crow’s blueberry cornbread pie is a centerpiece affair, although the name might be a bit confusing. This pie starts with a deeply browned and crisp crust packed with literal pounds of fresh, ripe blueberries. On top of the fruit, Riesman bakes a thin layer of moist cornbread. The whole thing gets capped with a thick layer of cream intensely flavored with molasses. And don’t miss the strawberry lemon pie, either. It boasts a thick layer of fresh fruit under a punchy lemon curd and a cloud of fluffy strawberry cream.

Rooster Crow Baking Co., 2015 NE Loop 410 at Los Patios, 512-689-5969, roostercrowbakingco.com, Facebook: @roostercrowbakingco

pstephen@express-news.net | Twitter: @pjbites | Instagram: @pjstephen

Paul Stephen moved to San Antonio from North Carolina in 2017 to join the Express-News Taste team. In that time, he's cooked through about 1,000 recipes, noshed at more than 200 restaurants and seriously considered getting a map of the city's grocery stores tattooed on his arm for easy reference. He cannot be trusted around your cookbook collection.