Paris Coffee Shop’s pies star in award-winning short film

Fort Worth’s 90-year-old Paris Coffee Shop has made it to the big screen.

The Paris’ popular pies and owner Mike Smith are featured in a prize-winning short film at the Lone Star Film Festival.

Why Pie?, by director Mark Birnbaum of Dallas, shows Smith making chocolate and lemon meringue pies, and diners extolling their love for pie in general and the Paris pies in particular.

It won the My Fort Worth Short Film Competition sponsored by the Fort Worth Film Commission in connection with the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The contest offered a $500 prize, a hotel stay and VIP festival passes for a 2-minute documentary, music video or animation featuring Fort Worth locations.

Birnbaum, a documentary filmmaker, has credits including KERA/Channel 13, the Discovery Channel and a Peabody Award. He has showcased Fort Worth in Slant 45: The Movie, about the 2011 North Texas Super Bowl youth charity programs, and in Swingman, about disabled Fort Worth firefighter Marshall Allen.

The Paris Coffee Shop, 704 W. Magnolia Ave., is named for 1926 founder Vic Paris. The plate-lunch cafe is open for breakfast and lunch weekdays and breakfast Saturdays.

This story was originally published November 11, 2016 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Paris Coffee Shop’s pies star in award-winning short film."