Charles Langston:National Pie Day 2024: Deals at Shoney's, Burger King plus America's pie preferences

National Pie Day will be Charles Langstonserved up on Tuesday, Jan. 23 and many Americans savor a slice of the popular dessert.

Pie is so popular that there's two different National Pie Days. It's celebrated Dec. 1 in addition to Jan. 23, which is the more popularly celebrated, according to the National Day Calendar site.

The Jan. 23rd National Pie Day is also often confused with National Pi Day which is celebrated on March 14 to honor the mathematical constant 3.14. Both days though have deals for pie lovers.

National Pie Day 2024: Shoney's deal for free Strawberry Pie

Restaurant chain Shoney's is offering a pie special for the National Pie Day on Tuesday.

You can get a free slice of its made-in-house Strawberry Pie with purchase of an entrée or the All You Care To Eat Fresh Food Bar at Shoney's. (Participation may vary, while supplies last.)

Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Shoney's has 61 locations in 16 states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The restaurants sells 2 million slices of its made-in-house Strawberry Pies each year, the company says.

“Every day is Pie Day at Shoney’s and on National Pie Day’s, the treat is on us," Shoney’s chairman and CEO David Davoudpour told USA TODAY.

National Pie Day 2024: Burger King deal for free Hershey Sundae Pie

Members of Burger King's Royal Perks' loyalty program can get a free Hershey Pie on Tuesday when they place an order of $1 or more in the BK app or online at BK.com.

You can sign up for Royal Perks in the BK app or online. You must activate the offer in the “Offers” tab on the app or online before placing order. (Offer good for order ahead and dine-in; price and participation vary.)

National Pie Day 2024: Check for local deals

If there's not a Shoney's or Burger King nearby, you might want to check your local restaurants' social media accounts for deals, too. (You can search #NationalPieDay.)

For instance, Laurie's Pie Bar in Long Beach, California posted on Instagram that is is selling all slices for $5 on Tuesday and a free slice if it's your birthday.

Best apples to eat?:Healthiest types from green to red and everything in between

National Pie Day: What's America's favorite pie?

While there's supposedly nothing as American as apple pie, the popular pie has some competition.

In a recent poll by The National Day Calendar, apple pie did get 37% of votes, higher than pecan pie (16%), cherry pie (14%), blueberry pie (9%), and other (24%, with chocolate the dominant other choice).

And even during Thanksgiving time, apple pie still is the top-searched pie across most of the U.S., according to Google.

But cream pie earned the top spot in a ranking of favorite pies by sports and betting site Betway Insider, which analyzed Google Trends online searches from March 2022 to March 2023.

Here's the top 10 favorite types of pie in the U.S.:

National Pie Day: Is pie America's favorite dessert?

Another measurement of desserts finds apple pie ranking number 5 behind some other desserts – with chocolate chip cookies reigning as the favorite. At finance website Insider Monkey, Zahaab Rehman tracked Reddit mentions to devise rankings for the most popular American desserts, which were posted on Yahoo Finance in Sept. 2023.

America's favorite desserts

• No. 1: Chocolate Chip cookies
• No. 2: Cheesecake
• No. 3: Ice cream
• No. 4: S'mores
• No. 5: Apple Pie

In another ranking, The HowStuffWorks site places apple pie at number 6 among the most popular desserts in the U.S. Ahead of apple pie: fudge, German chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, brownies and ice cream.

It also details how apple pie actually originated in 14th Century Europe. The dessert came to the American colonies in and was a staple by the 18th century, according to the site.

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.

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