By Chanda Temple
The way a friend recently raved about her orders from Mama Suz’s Fried Pies in Pelham, AL, I knew it was a place I needed to visit.
“I had the apple fried pie, and it reminded me of how my grandmama made pies for us,” said Deirdre Heard of Tallapoosa County in central Alabama. “And after I left the place, I called my grandmama and told her about it. I saved her half of my pie, drove all the way back to Tallapoosa County and gave it to her. She gave it a thumbs up. And she’s 91.”
“For her to give it the thumbs up, that spoke volumes,” Deirdre said.
Mama Suz’s also sells empanadas filled with everything from breakfast fixings to lunch options. A fan of Mexican food, Deirdre’s eyes were drawn to the menu’s “Mama’s Empanada,” which features pollo asada, chicken, dirty rice, refried beans and cheese.
Like the dessert fried pies, the empanadas are made to order and come out hot, golden and flaky.
“It brought back good memories from high school when I went to Mexico as a foreign exchange student. I love good savory food, and this was good,” Deirdre said. “It was like a one stop shop.”
At Mama Suz’s, flavor flows through the building, right along with faith and family.
Susan “Suz” Swindal started making fried pies after attending her father’s funeral in Iowa, fall 2017. On the return trip back to her home in Trussville, AL, she and her family stopped at a Missouri gas station and picked up some fried pies.
The fried pies weren’t that great, and Susan wondered if she could make a better version.
She tackled the apple fried pie first.
“And we’re all like, ‘Mom, Holy Cow! This is really good,” her son, Adam Swindal, recalled. “She said, ‘Y’all are just lying to me. You are trying to make me feel good because my dad just died.’ ”
They reassured her it was really good. Then, she took some fried pies to the daycare where she worked at the time. The co-workers told her the same thing.
Next, Susan tried her hand at peach fried pies. They were so good, that a daycare co-worker asked Susan if she could order six peach fried pies and six apple fried pies. Susan agreed.
At the time, Adam saw what was possible for his mother as he studied neuroscience at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. So, in an interest to help his mother get a new venture off the ground, he changed his major to business.
Their first sales were in June 2018 at a hair salon. Then, they went to a farmers market in Gardendale, AL. They continued to book events. In 2022, they moved into a brick and mortar at 2969 Pelham Parkway in Pelham, off Highway 31 and in the strip mall behind Waffle House. (Traveling from Hoover, AL, if you’ve gotten to the Gabe’s store at the traffic light on Highway 31, you’ve gone too far.)
The business embraces the nickname Susan’s father gave her: Sooz, which is short for Susan. The spelling was adjusted to appear as Suz, and that’s how they came up with the name Mama Suz.
In the kitchen, Adam, 29, and Susan, 57, work together, making fried pies, topped with a heart-shaped piece of crust.
“That’s mama’s love,” Adam said of the heart. “That first lady mama made the pies for, she said she really loved the way she put the heart on it. So, we said, it looks like every pie is getting a heart.”
And that heart is sort of like the heartbeat of the company, where their products are homemade, from the all-butter crust to pie fillings for the pecan, chocolate and other fried pies.
Nothing is ever from a can.
“We are just trying to give everybody a taste of nostalgia. It’s actually on our banner: ‘Like Grandma Used To Make,’ ” Susan said.
“We put that on there because when we first started, we had so many people come up to us and they would say, ‘Oh, this is just like what my grandmother used to make. Or this is like what my mother made.’ ”
Their menu appeals to a lot of people.
On a recent weekday afternoon, a pizza delivery guy walked into Mama Suz’s Fried Pies to place an order He’d tried the apple fried pie in the past. He liked it. But today? He wanted to try a new flavor.
He ordered a peach fried pie and waited for it to be made. Once his order was ready, the pizza delivery guy left with his order in a wax paper-like bag and a “Peach” sticker attached to it. Within four minutes, he was back in the shop.
Me: “You’re back!? That was fast.”
Him: “Yeah. I scarfed it down.”
The delivery pizza guy said he missed having breakfast that morning and came back for something savory. He selected the new barbecue chicken on the menu.
Him: “(Adam) said Mama made the barbecue sauce, so, I figured I had to try it. It has chow chow in it.”
Adam appreciates the support of customers. In fact, in January 2025, a post from a Birmingham influencer helped the business immensely.
At the time, the business had bills, including a big bill they had not anticipated. It was the slowest time of the year. Instead of panicking, they remained faithful.
Then, on Jan. 22, 2025, TikTok influencer, @iamashunlimited, walked in and ordered a bacon, egg and cheese fried pie and a fried apple empanada.
@iamashunlimited later posted her review to TikTok, calling Mama Suz’s a “hidden gem” and the business has “one of the best pies I’ve ever had.”
The post went viral, and customers flocked to the eatery. And within two days, Mama Suz’s Fried Pies met its financial obligations. Susan and Adam were also able to invest in additional equipment to meet the growing demand for fried pies. To date, the TikTok post has had more than 452,000 views. The influencer also shared it to her Instagram page, @ashunlimited, on April 1, 2025.
“When I opened the door, I could immediately tell this was a family-owned business who was passionate about their products,” @iamashunlimited said in her her TikTok post before trying the breakfast fried pie. “Yo, do you hear that bite? The flakiness? The crisp? The butteriness? The savoriness?”
“It was just so good. 10 outta 10.”
When she tried the apple pie, she said in the video: “One bite in, and I was looking around because I needed to tell somebody about it. But there was no one there but me. By the second bite, I was ready to talk to the owner. And by the third bite, I was ready to order another pie.”
Adam said that everything up to this point has been a God send in business.
“Yeah, mama has talent, and we put in the work. But it’s all Him,” Adam said. “I tell Mama all the time, ‘God’s got us. Don’t worry.’ ”
And whenever self-doubt creeps in, the fried pies keep him going.
“Every time I eat a pie, I’m like, ‘Ok, yeah, that’s why I’m doing this. ‘ ”
Savor This!: Mama Suz’s Fried Pies are open Monday – Friday from 8 a.m.t o 7:45 p.m. They are open on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. They are closed on Sunday.
They do walk-in and call-in orders, as well as catering. Currently, their dessert flavors include apple, peach, lemon, banana pudding, chocolate, cherry cheesecake, pecan, turtle, peanut butter & jelly, and Elvis. Their savory empanada stuffings include Mama’s Empanada; Mama’s Pizza Pie (mozzarella stuffed meatballs, cheese, pepperoni and marinara); Mama’s Chx Bham (a Chicken Philly with seasoned chicken, sautéed red and yellow peppers, onions, and cheese); barbecue chicken; and barbecue pork.
One fried pie is $4.40; four for $16.50; six for $24.20; and 12 for $44.
Heating tip: Mama Suz’s recommends to preheat the oven to 375 and warm eight to 10 minutes. You’ll find their Facebook page here; their Instagram here.
Chanda Temple is an award-winning writer living in Birmingham, Ala. She blogs at http://www.chandatemplewrites.com. If you have a food story idea, email her at chandatemple@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram at @chandatemple.
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