Highway Commission Designates 12-Mile Stretch of I-70 the Official ‘Pie Corridor’

The State Highway Commission voted unanimously Thursday to designate a 12-mile stretch of Interstate 70 as the nation’s first official “Pie Corridor,” recognizing the highway segment’s “exceptional concentration of pie-related commerce” — seven diners, four farm stands, and one gas station whose pie case, the commission noted, “is bigger than its tire section.”

“This corridor represents the finest pie-per-mile ratio in the state,” said Commission Chair Barbara Whitfield, 62, unveiling the new brown highway sign featuring a pie slice icon “which our graphics department rendered in mouthwatering detail.” The designation comes with $200,000 in tourism funding, new “Pie Corridor — Next 12 Miles” signage, and an official corridor anthem, a 45-second jingle the commission described as “catchy in a way that may constitute cruel and unusual punishment on loop.”

The corridor’s anchor establishment, Dot’s Diner at mile marker 214, has served pie since 1974 and reports selling 900 slices on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving alone. “People plan their whole drive around us,” said owner Dot Kowalski, 71, who still makes every crust by hand. “A man from Ohio told me he times his bladder breaks to our pie case. That’s not a customer. That’s a pilgrim.”

Not everyone celebrated. The neighboring “Cake County,” a 9-mile stretch of Route 9 known for its bakeries, issued a statement calling the designation “a flaky power grab” and announcing plans to seek its own federal recognition. “Pie had its moment,” said Cake County spokesperson Linda Marsh, 48. “It’s cake’s turn. Cake doesn’t need a corridor. Cake is the corridor.”

The commission’s 30-page corridor plan includes pie-safety pull-offs, a “designated pie transporter” program for drivers carrying more than six pies (“secure the boxes, crack a window, no sudden stops”), and a November “Pie Amnesty Day” during which troopers will not ticket drivers observed eating pie behind the wheel “provided both hands return to the wheel between bites.”

Tourism officials project the designation will draw 50,000 additional travelers this holiday season. “The Pie Corridor isn’t just a road,” Whitfield said. “It’s a promise: for 12 glorious miles, you are never more than four minutes from pie.”