Two years ago, Melody Lorenzo, aka the Bay Area’s “ Pinay Pie Lady ,” put on what she thought was going to be her last holiday pie sale. It was the culmination of years of creative tinkering at her bakery, Sweet Condesa, which took classic Filipino desserts like halo-halo, bibingka and queso de bola, and recast them into the format of an all-American pie .

The pies were wildly popular. But at the time, Lorenzo’s lease on her commercial kitchen was set to expire in a few months, and she was, quite frankly, burned out after seven years of fighting to keep her business afloat.

“I was trying to take care of myself,” Lorenzo says. “Ever since the pandemic, I’d been on a hustle mode — like, I don’t shut off, basically.”

Lorenzo shut Sweet Condesa down officially last summer and stepped

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