Cafes have fresh pies, hearty eats

The owner of the Bread and Butter Cafe and the Ajo Cafe rises at 2:30 a.m. to head over to the Bread and Butter Cafe and get things started before the rest of the employees come in and open the restaurant at 5 a.m.

Rohwer and his wife, Margie, have owned the Bread and Butter Cafe, 4231 E. 22nd St., for 14 years and the Ajo Cafe, 3132 E. Ajo Way, for six years. They serve up down-home food, from almost identical menus filled with home fries, omelets, chorizo, deliciously lumpy mashed potatoes . . .

And pies. It's hard to overlook the pies.

So why are the pies so good? "They are good pies, aren't they? We make them all from scratch, fresh every day from scratch. We have a good recipe for the crust, and I think there is a secret — I use apple cider vinegar in my ice water. Chocolate cream is probably the favorite, then coconut, apple and probably rhubarb after that. I do both Dutch and what we call fresh apple pie. I've been doing a sugar-free apple pie at the Bread and Butter Cafe, and it's going pretty well."

The Bread and Butter Cafe serves more pies — they bake between 10 and 15 early every morning, while the Ajo Cafe bakes about four daily. If you get there and see a pie you fancy listed on the dry erase board, don't be shy about asking your waitress to set aside a piece because it's a sad feeling when you're in the middle of your sandwich and the pie you had your eye on runs out. They also sell whole pies, for $9.25, if you call a day ahead. Call 327-0004 to order.

How did you get started in restaurants? "I told my dad I wanted a 10-speed bike, and he told me to go get a job. I was 12 years old and got a job at the old Palomino restaurant at Fort Lowell and Swan (roads). I started washing dishes and worked my way up. I'm now 48. It's a tough business, and I just started doing it and just kept doing it. You can't do something as long as I've done it and not like it."

What separates your cafes from others in town? Rohwer says he spends more time working at the Bread and Butter Cafe because the Ajo is staffed with many employees, like waitresses Beverly McPhedran and Judy Kenet-Thompson, who've been with him for years. "I think nowadays it's real hard to find good help, but if you treat people right, that's the whole thing. Everybody's personalities are so different and their lives are so different. A lot of places are so cold, they say 'just do your job.' I've always had it like we're one big family, a team, and we work together."

What separates your cafes from each other? "The menus are the same, the prices are the same. But it's a whole different crowd. It's kind of a working man's cafe at the Ajo Cafe. We get more women than we used to get, but we get a lot of the working guys. At the Bread and Butter Cafe, it's really evenly mixed with residential, car salesmen and workers."

What's in your fridge at home? The Rohwers have a son, 16, and daughter, 12. Their fridge is always stocked with lots of fruit and yogurt. "And I always have real butter in there. We like real butter."

Chef du Jour

Coconut Cream Pie

Yield: 1 (9-inch) pie

u 3 cups milk

u 4 tablespoons cornstarch

u 5 egg yolks

u 3/4 cup sugar

u 5 ounces flaked coconut

u 1/2 teaspoon coconut flavoring

u 1 (9-inch) pie shell, pre-baked

u 1 1/4 cups non-dairy whipped topping, whipped with mixer until firm and smooth

u 1 ounce toasted coconut

In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup milk and cornstarch, dissolve cornstarch thoroughly and set aside. In a saucepan, combine 2 1/2 cups milk, egg yolks and sugar. Place on high heat and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Just before it starts to boil, add cornstarch mixture, using wire whip to thoroughly whip until smooth. As soon as milk mixture thickens, remove from heat and strain. In a bowl, combine cream pie filling, flaked coconut and coconut flavoring. Mix well with wire whip and chill. Place chilled filling into pie shell. Top with whipped topping and sprinkle with toasted coconut. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

The Bread and Butter Cafe