A win last Friday night by the best football team in the land reminded me of my love of hot pies. And by hot pies I don’t mean the mighty Magpies but the humble Aussie pastry.

I remembered a Queensland friend once told me about the pie mecca of Yatala Bakery: “Everyone in Brisbane should go at least once in their life.”

Upon arriving at Yatala but before getting stuck into a pepper steak pie I was stunned by the drive-through.

I have seen drive-through voting, drive-through banking and the obligatory fast food drive-through but I have never seen a drive-through bakery. And I have been to many, many bakeries.

One pepper steak pie and a pasty later I found myself watching the drive-through and pondering: Why had pies lost out to American fast food muck as Australia’s favourite road trip food?

Long before Australia’s intercity highways were littered with McDonald’s and KFC selling their greasy goods on both sides of the road, Australia’s favourite road trip food was the meat pie.

A family on the road would often call into a small town bakery for a pie and maybe a vanilla slice for dessert. These days the kids in the back of the car are more likely to ask mum to stop for a Big Mac than they are for a chunky steak and kidney pie.

This defeat of the pie can be seen all over the country and is obvious at Yatala. The turn off from the Pacific Highway proudly proclaims McDonald’s is just around the corner but mentions nothing of the bakery.

Sadly, short of McDonald’s selling a McMeatPie I can’t see the pie making a winning comeback anytime soon. At least I’m guaranteed Pies of the football variety winning this weekend. Maybe.