(Publisher’s Note: Maybe it’s this time of year when we miss Jim Oliver and his tasty creations the most. Maybe it’s during the summer. No matter what, though, Oliver’s Pies is missed in the northern Market house of Centre Market and that’s why we decided to publish this article once again.)
It was a Dutch Apple.
But there was no warning label on the box.
No, “I’m Done!” or “Oliver Is Retiring” or “For Sale: Pie Company.”
Not even a “Goodbye.”
Instead, one day in January Jim Oliver just quit showing up most mornings around 8 a.m. at his Centre Market pie shop, and for a while no one really knew why.
But:
· Jim developed pneumonia in late December 2021.
· While sleeping on a couch in the living room early January 2, Jim felt nauseated and attempted to make it to a nearby powder room.
· Jim fainted, collapsed, and was unconscious for a period of time.
· At 3:30 a.m., Jim called his wife, Michelle, with his cell phone.
· After becoming more comfortable from the rib injury he sustained in the fall, he did not want to go to the hospital in an ambulance.
· His wife returned to the bed after asking her husband to call her back when he had decided he needed to go to the hospital and that an ambulance was the only he would get there.
· Jim called Michelle at 6:30 a.m.
“I just didn’t have the energy even to move,” he explained. “But it was obvious I needed to go.”
Jim fractured three ribs in the fall and was out of commission for more than a month. Wheeling’s pie maker did attempt a comeback once he felt well enough, but certain movements were too excruciating.
“It was weird because I could roll out the dough, but I couldn’t roll it back without those sharp pains doubling me over,” Oliver said. “I thought things like that would go away, but the pain never did.”
That is why Jim Oliver has officially retired and is seeking a buyer of the business.
“Thank you to everyone for a wonderful 15 years. I loved every moment, but physically I just cannot do it anymore. I grew used to 12-, 13-hour days, and I just can’t do that six days a week anymore,” Oliver said. “I love making pies, but it’s become very hard for me to make the number of pies I have to in order to fill all of the orders. Trust me; I’m not complaining about having a lot of orders because I always felt blessed for the gift God gave me.
“I did not intend for this to end so abruptly, but because of my fall, my physical capabilities are going to be limited for a while,” he said. “I’m five years older than my wife, so my goal was to keep working until she was able to retire, too, but this accident changed that plan overnight. We’ll have to come up with another plan now.”
Winning the Gold
He and his wife recall very well that first Thanksgiving. It had been several months since opening operations in their little corner of the northern market house, and the phone just wouldn’t stop ringing.
“For more than a week leading up to Thanksgiving, the orders kept coming in, and we just kept taking them,” Michelle Oliver remembered. “We had to call people and tell them we would deliver their pie as soon as possible, and we didn’t get done Thanksgiving night until around 8 p.m. It was a madhouse, and we never did that again.”
The atmosphere was reminiscent of Jim’s and Michelle’s efforts to raise funds so his son could travel to compete for Team USA in the World ITF Taekwon-Do Championships in South Korea. Not only did the Olivers raise enough for Adam to attend, but Jim was able to accompany his son to the competition.
Adam won the gold, and Jim discovered his true calling.
“We made hundreds of pies so Adam could go on that trip,” he said. “And it made me realize how much I loved working with my hands to make those pies. It’s what I wanted to do, so we did it.”
Oliver’s Pies won all of the awards, including best pies in West Virginia from Yelp and USA Today, and that’s because the bakery offered as many as 19 different variations. The least popular included raisin and custard, but the most popular surprised even them.
No. 5 – Blackberry – “I was surprised that pumpkin was in the top 5, but I guess the numbers don’t lie.”
No. 4 – Chocolate Cream Pie – “This one is my favorite, but as a diabetic, I had to be careful not to test too much!”
No. 3 – Apple – “Our customers always wanted an Apple pie for holidays like the Fourth of July, so we hope they found a suitable replacement this year.”
No. 2 – Cheesecake – “Cheesecakes weren’t on the menu when we first opened, but it made it because of how many requests we received. It caught up very quickly; trust me.”
No. 1 – Coconut Cream Pie – “I was always surprised that coconut cream pie was our most popular pie of all time, and not just by a little bit but by a lot,” Oliver said. “It was a much wider margin between the coconut cream pies and the second most popular until I started making cheesecakes. The cheesecakes caught up a bit, but before that the second most popular was my apple pie.
“Now, coconut cream pie wasn’t even my favorite. My favorite was the banana cream pie, and it called for the same homemade pudding but, of course, it was bananas instead of the coconuts,” he said. “Now, I am a chocoholic, too, so I also loved my chocolate cream pies, as well. Those were always very, very good in my opinion.”
The Final Wave
For 30 years, he did something else.
For example, prior to his pie-making career, he built bridges for people’s mouths because, well, someone had to do it, right?
“Hey, the bills got paid,” Oliver said. “We’ve always done what we’ve had to do.”
But since 2007, there was Jim Oliver standing in his window-covered corner waving to those who could catch his attention between all of the slicing and dicing and dough making.
“One of the best parts involved with the last 15 years were the people whether they were customers or just walking by,” Jim said. “I can’t say enough about how kind the people of Wheeling are. Even when mistakes were made, everyone was gracious and understanding. Because of the people, I always looked forward to going to the shop and making whatever pies were on the list.
“What I enjoyed the most were the comments from the satisfied customers; the thank yous; the repeat customers telling me they’ll never go anywhere else for their pies,” Wheeling’s pie maker added. “During those years, I made thousands of pies, and when I tried to count them up, I came up with about 160,000 of them. That’s a lot of pie.”
