Pies are non-partisan.

CHICAGO (CNN) — Fitness devotee Barack Obama has developed an obsession with of all things, pie.

The candidate known for his discriminate eating habits and daily workouts mentioned a recent pie stop at a southern Ohio restaurant during all four of his Saturday Philadelphia events.

"I was in Ohio, in a small town called Georgetown, we were on a bus tour, a bus tour for jobs in Ohio. And I was with the governor there, Governor Strickland. And we decided to stop at a diner because I was hungry and I decided I wanted some pie," Obama said in West Philly of his afternoon trip to Fireside Restaurant last Thursday. "I had coconut cream pie. The governor of Ohio, he had lemon meringue pie."

Obama started weaving the lengthy pie anecdote into his stump speech Thursday night in Ohio, telling audiences that the owner of Fireside, who served Obama and Strickland their pie slices, is a Republican disenchanted with the direction of the country.

"I said, 'How's business?' And he said, 'Not so good, because my customers can't afford to eat out anymore.' I said 'Who's been running the economy for the last eight years?' And he said 'I guess the Republicans have.'

"I said 'Let me ask you something: if you just kept hitting your head against the wall, and it started to hurt, would you think about stopping at some point?' And he said 'that makes sense.' I said 'You might want to vote Democratic this time, stop the pain, stop the hurt. We can't screw it up any worse than they did," Obama said to roars and cheers from the Philadelphia crowd.

Reached by phone on Sunday, William Seip — whose last name, he points out, is 'pies' spelled backwards — was amused that his pie was the talk of the campaign trail.

"I really don't tell anyone how I'm going to vote," Seip said who disagreed with the description by Obama and his wait staff that he is a "die-hard Republican." Seip, who is a lifelong Georgetown resident and has owned Fireside for nine years, said he has voted for Democrats in the past.

Of their conversation, Seip cut to the chase: "He asked me how the economy was and I said 'it sucks.'" Seip is looking for a president who will "put money back to the American people instead of sending it across the water — put it in the United States."

According to Seip, Obama was the first presidential candidate to visit Georgetown since the 1900s, and "everybody is still talking about it."

"I ain't into it right now" he said of the election. "I just don't get into listening to candidates right now, back and forth right now, all that fighting." He added that he had yet to pay much attention to John McCain, but since he met Obama in person and shook his hand, "I'm leaning that way. He was down to earth, he knows what's going on."