LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — As the rush of the holidays arrives here in Lexington, so too does the madness at Missy's Pies.
"I work better when I am super, super stressed. I can focus a lot easier when I'm stressed out," said Chelsea Oliver, general manager of Missy's.
Luckily for Oliver, Wednesday is their craziest day of the year.
"By far and away the absolute busiest, yeah," she said. "Makes everything else we do look like child's play."
Oliver said there were 986 pre-orders for pies. She expects to sell several hundred walk-up orders as well. She arrived to start baking at midnight. As Oliver and her crew in the kitchen churned out pies of all varieties, a group of workers outside filled customers' orders.
"Most of our guests are regulars. We know them by name and relationship from waiting on them," said longtime worker Severn Miller. "You couldn't really keep me away if you tried!"
Miller said the key to making the system work is a notebook filled with hundreds of handwritten orders.
"If we lost this book, we would be in so much trouble because it's everything!" she laughed.
There were two drive-thru lanes for customers to pick up their treasures. They came in waves. The workers got a few minutes to breathe, then a few minutes of chaos. Miller said the key is to just let go.
"The realization that there is not very much control," she said. "We all get really giddy and after a certain point, you do just let all the stress go, and then we're all just happy to be here together,"
The customers know the drill. Abigale Wilson picked up a pecan pie and a brownie pie. She's a longtime customer.
"It is a tradition to get them here, yep, every year!" Wilson said.
Just like Chelsea Oliver's Thanksgiving tradition of getting up hours before dawn and powering through to the finish line.
