We had the good fortune of connecting with Tonya Saidi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tonya, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Love, I bake because I enjoy feeding people something that stirs up nostalgic memories of loved ones. When people eat pie they almost always have a great story that goes with it. My mission statement “I want to feed and nurture the world one dessert at a time.”

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My business started when I worked in Real Estate and needed to figure out what I loved to do so I could do it every day and get paid to do it. I comtemplated for a lil bit and realized it was baking that I loved and if I did it every day it wouldn’t feel like work. I started at Farmers Markets, moved into a Pie Food Truck and then opened my first brick n mortar with another Food Truck owner. This all happend in a matter of 4 years. I am now in my third location with my brick n mortar, as we moved 2 times, and have purchased my second food truck. Getting where I am now was not easy, as a matter a fact it was very difficult at times but since I do something I love my customers feel the love and support me and encourage me when times are hard. I bake pies and I do it with love and compassion, I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.

Any great local spots you’d like to shoutout?
If my best friend came to visit and I wanted to show them the best time ever I would first take them to eat at LoLo’s Chicken and Waffles and we would eat so much that all we could do was go back home and watch Netflix! The next night I would say lets get dressed up and go have a nice dinner at Resaurant Progress then hit the Van Buren for live music. Our third and final night out we would hit up Charlies on 7th Ave for a tantilizing Drag Show and have tacos from the Taco Truck then head over to Chars has the Blues and dance the night away!!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There have been so many people support, encourage and love me in the 14 years that I’ve been on my journey, I could talk about all of them for days!! As far as there being a few very special ones I would have to say my children, Cody, Jordan and Sarah. They sacraficed a lot of my attention when I was starting and they have been the ones that when I was on the edge and in tears thinking about the possibilty of stopping they encouraged me to keep going. They would say “you’ve made it this far why stop now?” They would listen to me talk endlessly about pie for years and years! They have baked with me, delivered with me and moved equipment with me. They are very special to me and they have helped me to not give up when things get tough.

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