– Gary Fletcher

The Observer

ENTERPRISE "It’s the only gas station in the country where you can go order gourmet deserts," Jim Heady of Enterprise says.

"You don’t expect this at a gas station," Kate Fent says out the window of her white Mercury Sable that she was having Heady fill up. "His pies are the best."

"Some people have nicknamed me Jimmy Cheesecake," Heady adds.

Heady, 61, is a gas attendant at Steve Testerman’s Shell Station and Auto Repair in Enterprise.

Heady makes all kinds of pies, cakes and deserts, and people look him up through a word-of-mouth reputation for the quality of his succulent specialties.

Those include berry pies, cheesecakes, cream pies, cakes and more.

"I don’t cut any corners. It’s quality and it’s all from scratch," Heady said.

Heady uses real cream in his cream pies.

He puts lemon pulp "right in" his lemon pie "to offset the sweetness." He precisely balances the tartness and sweetness until it is "just perfect,” he says.

In his key lime pie Heady does not use artificial flavoring or lime juice.

He explains that historically key lime pies came from Key West, Fla. The little limes that require certain soil and weather are now also grown in Mexico.

Heady cuts the little key limes in half, scrapes out the pulp with a spoon, beats it and adds it to his pie.

Eight women have proposed to Heady one of them, three times.

"If you won’t marry me just move in. I’ll pay the bills and you cook," he remembers her saying.

Heady has made as many as 18 pies a day in his mobile home in Enterprise.

He’s made 588 pies in the past 18 months; 168 of them since Thanksgiving, he said.

Holidays, family reunions and weddings are typical of occasions that generate multiple orders for his deserts.

"It’s good old Grandma’s cooking. It’s all great stuff," Shell station owner Testerman says.

Heady came to Wallowa County from Portland in November 1999. His church was looking at property here and he came to evaluate the parcel.

He liked it here. He liked the beauty, he says, but more importantly he liked the people. They are real nice, he says.

Prior to that he’d lived in Yakima and Los Angeles.

Along the way he studied first at a culinary school, then a pastry school, both in Littleton, Colo. He was an understudy to a Swedish chef.

"I like giving people things of good quality,” Heady says. "I love people. Enjoy being with them not being stuck in the back room by myself, away from my patrons. I’m gifted in getting along with them.

"People ask how come I’m so happy. It’s because I’m content with what I have and content with what I’m doing."

Heady started giving away slices of pie to his regular customers at the gas station during the holidays.

"On Christmas Eve I’d give pie to all my regulars. I had paper plates and plastic forks here. It was my way of giving something to the community," he says.

Heady is a licensed pastor with the Gospel Outreach Mission Northwest Church, where he cooks for a dozen each Sunday.

"I like all kinds of cooking and all kinds of people," he says.