Sydney’s Sweet Shoppe

The origin story for Sydney’s Sweet Shoppe, Adams Yi’s Tucson bakery, begins with Granny Pat, a home baker who meticulously preserved her 1940s cookbook and passed down her pie-making techniques to her granddaughter. “The greatest compliment I’ve ever been given,” Adams Yi says, “was from my grandmother, who said, ‘Your pies smell and taste exactly like mine.’ ”

When Adams Yi was working a retail job, she put up a flyer in the break room, inviting her co-workers to place holiday orders for pies. After she received and completed 30 orders that way, her family encouraged her to open her own pie shop. Those cherished family recipes soon became the centerpieces of a thriving business.

“Not everyone can make a tender and flaky crust,” Adams Yi says, “and that’s truly what I credit my grandma for — and her techniques that she taught me.”

Not everyone could have opened a bakery during the challenging early days of COVID-19, either, but Adams Yi says confidence in her product and support from her family — particularly her father, Leon Adams — helped the shop not just survive, but flourish. She also credits a simple approach: Do one thing, and do it exceptionally well.

What sets Sydney’s Sweet Shoppe apart isn’t just its delectable offerings; it’s also the heart Adams Yi puts into her baking. Customers have told her the pies remind them of their own family’s cooking. “People can feel a sense of love and warmth and welcoming when they come into the store,” she says.

The Dutch apple pie has become the shop’s signature product. Fortunately for Adams Yi, it’s also one of her favorite pies to bake. “As grueling as it is to make — because we peel everything by hand and slice [the apples] very thin — the gratification of it as it’s baking in the oven, and then when you try it … there’s nothing like it,” she says.

Other popular pies include Key lime, which is served frozen to enhance its texture and taste; a variety of cream pies, along with specialty pies such as peanut butter bliss and blueberry sour cream; and more traditional fruit pies, such as cherry, strawberry rhubarb and other classics. Adams Yi’s personal favorite, coconut cream pie, reflects the shop’s commitment to classic flavors that evoke childhood memories.

“The pies we sell are going to make [customers] feel that way,” she says, “just like how my grandma has always made people feel with these recipes.”