Anyone remember McMullen's Apple pie?

[Ciao Ling]

I am originally from NYC, but now live in Upstate NY where it is now the beginning of apple season, a time for all things apple, including making apple pies. I have made all sorts of apple pies, but none have come close to an apple pie I recall from my youth. My parents used to occasionally take me to Jim McMullen, a popular Upper East Side watering hole on Third Avenue, famous for its Chicken Pot Pie and Apple Pie. I recall the apple pie as a towering stack of apple slices, more apple than crust, amply infused with cinnamon, and having a "drier" texture than any recipe that I have tasted or made. Maybe I am just trying to relive a fond memory of youth, but I have tried in vain to find a recipe for this pie or something similar. Contrary to my fond memory of the pie, a Google search only turned up an unflattering description of the pie in a New York Magazine restaurant review by critic, Seymour Britchky, no fan of Jim McMullen, which described the apple pie thusly:

"McMullen's apple pie is famous for its four-inch height at the center, and for innards so constructed, of layer upon layer of thick apple slices, that the cross section revealed where the pie is sliced looks like a cleverly constructed wall of stones. Unfortunately, the tartness of the crisp fruit is obscured by excesses of sugar and cinnamon- and the top crust of the pie- really a browned custard — simply adds to the vapidity."