Funny thing how Katherine Green ended-up in the pie business.
Before there were any pies at all, there was a sign. A vintage sign advertising Ruth’s Homemade Pies. No one knows who Ruth was or even where she baked her pies. Green’s husband Dennis Green found the sign at a flea market and set in the window of his Sausalito vintage shop Karl the Store — named for the bay area’s fog.
Sometimes people would walk in his shop on Bridgeway, admire the mix of modern and antique art, peruse the swanky jeans made locally, and inquire about the homemade pies.
“And I’d have to tell people we don’t really sell pies it’s just a vintage sign for sale,” said Dennis Green, who opened the Sausalito store about five years ago.
Just before COVID hit, a woman walked into the shop inquiring about the pies, of which Green gave his pat answer, which in this case did not satisfy the visitor.
“She said, in the most serious of voice,” recalled Green, “if you don’t take the sign out of the window while I’m standing here, I’m going to call the police department and city hall and report you for false advertising.”
Had Green had been in the store alone, he might’ve shrugged the comment off as just a cranky-pants and gone about his day. But his wife Katherine Green was also on hand, and took the threat as a challenge. She leaned to her husband and wondered aloud, ‘what if she got her home-baking license and started baking pies?’
So Katherine did just that. She got a permit from the city planning commission for home baking and started baking ten mini pies a week in the couple’s kitchen. They sold them in the shop, with customers eating them outside on little tables along with coffee from next door Equator Coffee.
“I think I was just doing it for fun in the beginning,” said Katherine Green. “I didn’t think it would actually turn into a business.”
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As the COVID lockdown began, the pie business began to pick up as people stuck at home clamored for pies — and started gifting pies to other homeward bound folks. Sausalito’s houseboat community began ordering 30 at a time.
“So being able to drop off a pie on somebody’s doorstep was a really nice gesture,” Katerine said.
But then came another dash of fate. During the pandemic, Green lost her regular business job.
“She comes to me and she goes ‘oh my god what are we going to do?’’ said Dennis. “And I said ‘well, we’re doing it. You’re going to make pies and we’re going to sell them in the store and everything’s going to be cool.”
With that full pie plunge, the Greens launched Slice of Sausalito to sell Katherine’s pies through Karl the Store. Pretty soon there were weddings, birthday parties — it didn’t take long before the Green’s kitchen was maxed-out. Then came a remodel— expanding from a single oven to three, which can handle 36 mini pies at a time. There are now several freezers in the garage and generators to back it all up if the power goes out.
“I love the business,” said Katherine, her hands plunged into a bowl of pie dough. “I love being able to do something that brings so much joy to people.”
Her roster of seasonal fruit pies; key lime, apple, pumpkin, cherry, mixed berries — are all made from mid-western recipes handed down by her mom and grandmother.
“I think it’s a bit of nostalgia when people taste our pies,” she said, “because it tastes like what mom used to make.”
The Thanksgiving orders started pouring in before the Halloween decorations were even up. This week Katherine and her helper Lola will turn out some 200 pies. Dennis plans to open his shop on Thanksgiving day just to hand out all the orders.
“I know, it’s crazy,” said Katherine. “It’s a lot of pies coming out of the kitchen.”
For now, Katherine is content with the number of pies she can produce in her home kitchen, and doesn’t have plans to scale up.
For the record, the couple never again saw the lady who complained about the sign. But these days the Green’s are thankful for her scolding, which lead them down an unexpected path to what Dennis calls pure pie-demonium.
“You have to be flexible and you have to be willing to embrace what comes at you,” Dennis Green said. “I think that’s the success of life.”
