For Your Next Night Out, Skip the Bar and Grab Dessert at This New East Bay Pie Shop

If your idea of a great night out is an evening that ends with something sweet and something bubbly, then here’s a new East Bay spot to add to your list: Edith’s Pie opens at 412 22nd Street on Saturday, April 29 in Uptown Oakland. On Friday and Saturday nights, customers will be able to wander in until 10 p.m. for a slice of chocolate chess or banana cream pie with a cup of hot coffee or a glass of sparkling wine from the East Bay’s own Hammerling Wines.

Co-owners Mike Raskin and Jeffrey Wright say they hope the shop will fill a pie-sized hole in the East Bay nightlife scene. “Our brick-and-mortar pie shop will offer a more casual place to get a drink without being fully centered around being a bar — the kind of spot Jeff and I would love to hang out in ourselves,” Raskin says in a press statement about the bakery’s opening.

Adahlia Cole

Adahlia Cole

Of course, the all-day cafe won’t be open just to satisfy diners' late-night pie cravings. Edith’s Pie will start the day with breakfast service at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday. The opening menu includes a selection of six savory hand pies intended to work for either breakfast or lunch. The specific lineup will rotate frequently, but for now, swing through for options including chorizo, potato, and pepper; Japanese curry chicken; spinach and goat cheese; and spiced lamb and date. A farmers market quiche will use up whatever vegetables are in season and, for now, the options also include a classic sausage, potato, and scallion number.

On the sweet side, pies split into two categories: either butter or graham cracker crust. The former camp includes some of the bakery’s fan-favorite selections such as Edith’s “world famous” scribble pie, which stars chocolate studded brown butter walnut, plus chocolate chess. More seasonal varieties include strawberry streusel and Earl Grey custard. On the graham cracker crust side of the list, look for coconut cream, banana cream, and key lime.

Adahlia Cole

Wright says he’s particularly excited about the shop’s beverage program, which he spearheaded. There’s coffee, naturally, but there’s also the option to pair your pie with something that’ll give you a bit more buzz. Wines and beers focus on local producers including Hammerling, Scribe, and East Brother Beer Co. The cocktails, meanwhile, serve to help the kitchen reduce food waste by using up what might otherwise have ended up in the trash or compost. The list includes all low-alcohol by volume options including the Gemini & Leo, which combines a syrup made in-house from leftover strawberry tops with cherrywood-charred Manzanilla sherry, orange sweet vermouth, and citrus. The Field Call riffs on a savory bloody mary, leaning on a base of aromatic Foro Rosso Di Torino vermouth and vegetable stock made from kitchen scraps, plus lemon and fennel.

Being able to invite customers into their own space marks a huge milestone for the two co-owners, who’ve been running Edith’s as a mobile pop-up for years. The business first started in late 2019, when Raskin began baking out of his one-bedroom Oakland apartment. He named the business for his mom and later joined forces with Wright as the pies began to develop a dedicated following. Three years later, the duo baked — and sold out of — hundreds of Thanksgiving pies last fall, while also raising funds to open the doors to their first permanent cafe. “For so long we’ve showed up in other people’s spaces and been a guest to them and tried to create our brand inside of their home,” Wright told Eater SF earlier this year, “and it’s really special to get to invite people into our space.”

Adahlia Cole

Adahlia Cole

Adahlia Cole

Edith’s Pie, 412 22nd Street in Oakland, celebrates its opening and three-year anniversary on Saturday, April 29 from 1 to 6 p.m. The shop’s hours will be Wednesday through Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. with extended hours until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.