She Makes Elliston Place Soda Shop’s Legendary Pies

Elliston Place Soda Shop has been a beloved local establishment since 1939. And despite a few transformations over the years — notably a change in ownership in 2019 — one thing remains steadfast and true: the pies. One glance at the bakery case, and you’re bound to be taken in by the coconut-sprinkled, chocolate-infused, meringue-topped desserts. And that’s all thanks to Linda Melton.

Affectionately known as Ms. Linda (or sometimes “The Pie Lady”), she has been crafting the Soda Shop’s pies for over three decades. Inspired by her grandmother, she brings her classic (and secret!) family recipes to our tables. Get to know this talented FACE of Nashville!

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Who or what inspired your love of baking?

I’m from West Tennessee — a little town called Decaturville. My grandmother had 10 kids, and she took care of all of us grandkids while our parents worked. We were way back in the country; probably the closest store you could get to for essentials like milk, eggs, and butter was still about 15 miles away. So Saturday was the day we went to town; we got what we needed while we were there.

She had all those grandkids … she cooked for us and made our desserts. We didn’t get candy bars or this and that. She made pies. And what we didn’t eat at lunch is what she and my grandfather ate for dinner.

I am not a sweets person. I don’t really crave or enjoy sweets. But I love to make them. Watching her make the pies interested me so much that I had to learn everything she was doing. I still measure like her. Back then, she didn’t have the fancy measuring cups and spoons. She used a coffee cup and teaspoons, which I still use to this day. I have no measuring spoons. I have no measuring cups. I have a coffee cup and a teaspoon.

What is your earliest baking memory?

Oh gosh, baby, it goes back to when you really start remembering stuff — maybe six or seven years old. My grandmother had one of those cabinets — like a table, but you pulled it out — and that’s how she rolled out her dough. I can remember getting on a chair and watching her and wanting to help.

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What was the first baked dessert you ever tasted?

It was probably her blackberry cobbler. She used to love to make them, and she would go out and pick her own blackberries.

She would cook them down with the sugar and juices. Then she would roll out dough, kind of like you would roll out a dumpling, and she would drop them in the boiling blackberries, and they would swell up. And that’s what she called her blackberry cobbler. That’s one of the ones I can really remember tasting. And her coconut and chocolate pies.

Are those the same recipes you’re using today?

Oh, yes. And does anybody know them? No. Not even my cousins. Just me.

You’re a legend at Elliston Place Soda Shop. What got you started?

I have been here going on 31 years. I was the general manager for a chain of restaurants called Po’Folks, and they finally closed them all down here in Nashville.

Because I was a manager there and had worked so many hours, I had decided that I wasn’t going to do anything for a while. But you can only stay home and rearrange the furniture or clean cabinets for so long. A girl who had worked for me at Po’Folks called me up one day and said, “There’s this little restaurant Downtown called Elliston Place Soda Shop. They need some part-time help. Would you be interested?”

I never even knew it existed, but I said, “Yeah, I’ll come down and talk to them if it’s part-time — just a few days a week.” Well, it was never part-time, honey. I went in there full force, and I’m still going.

We would never dream of asking for family secrets, but what is one pie-making tip we should know about?

If you make custard from scratch, you have your eggs, sugar, milk, and butter. And a lot of people use flour. What they don’t realize is that flour has a taste. Cornstarch doesn’t have a taste, so I use cornstarch to thicken mine.

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If we could only taste one pie on the menu, what should it be?

Oh, let me tell you my top three. My number one is probably the coconut meringue, and it would be backed up by the chocolate meringue. Then, the third one would probably be the chess pie. It’s the old Southern-style chess pie. You don’t know how often I get asked, “What is a chess pie?” What I do most of the time for those folks is say, “Let me just let you taste it.” Because you would never believe it’s made as simple as sugar, butter, flour, milk, and buttermilk. You wouldn’t think you could take those ingredients and make a pie.

Actually, chess pie came from the Depression, when people didn’t really have the stuff to bake with. When they first made it, they would get asked, “What kind of pie is that?” And they would say, “It’s just a pie.” As the years went on, they started calling it “chess pie.”

You mentioned you don’t crave sweets. What’s your go-to comfort food?

I just like good home cooking, baby. And I usually go right here to the Soda Shop! My go-to comfort food would probably be fried chicken, white beans or pinto beans, some turnip greens, and cornbread.

What do you do for self-care?

I’m going to be totally honest: my favorite thing is my great-grandbabies. They live six minutes from me. I’m a widow, so it’s just me. And there’s nothing like getting off after a day’s work and walking in their door to see their smiles. I have two grandbabies and five great-grandbabies. They keep me going — the soccer games and basketball games and softball games and tee-ball games.

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LIGHTNING ROUND

Where do you most like to take your grandbabies? They love to go to Circus World in Hendersonville, and they love the zoo.

Last memorable book you read? Whatever it was, it was a Stephen King book.

What are you cooking or baking, if not a pie? Anything and everything! Whatever comes to my mind.

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Nashville women are doing inspiring work. Meet more of them over at our FACES archives!