Sweetie Pie: how a spontaneous drive became a beloved Toronto pie shop 

At a glance: Sweetie Pie co-owner Cesario Ginjo turned a pandemic-era opportunity into a growing Toronto bakery brand by trusting his instincts, learning the numbers and keeping quality at the centre of every decision.

Some of the best businesses start with a gut feeling and a willingness to follow it. For Cesario Ginjo, co-owner of Sweetie Pie, that moment came on a drive through Little Italy in Toronto, the neighbourhood where he grew up, three weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic. He spotted a little sign in a coffee shop window and did what he always does: got curious.

"I'm a curious person," he says. "I called my agent and asked him to check it out." A month later, he and his partner Tina had bought the place and opened Sweetie Pie. No background in baking. No culinary training. Just a good idea, a catchy name and a lot of nerve.

Cesario is not a first-time entrepreneur by any stretch. A serial businessman since age 21, he trained in aircraft maintenance before pivoting to the world of commerce and building a portfolio that includes FlowersCanada.com and Dolce Chocolate Co. With Portuguese roots, a lifelong love of cooking and over 30 years of business experience, he had already shelved a brand name years earlier that he thought had potential: Sweetie Pie. 

The early days

The first summer was warm and busy, but not exactly in the way they'd planned. Customers were lining up for cold drinks and ice cream. The pies? Not so much. It turned out people needed a reason to seek out a pie shop, and that reason came when a media outlet ran a story about them. Then celebrity chef Mark McEwan named their blueberry pie the best in Toronto."From there, we thought, alright, we've got something." The concept was simple but surprisingly rare: a place devoted entirely to handmade pies made with real ingredients, no shortcuts. As Cesario explains it, "You can buy a pie at any bakery, but they make bread and they make everything else. There was really not a place where you could actually get a handmade pie with real ingredients."

His elevator pitch? "It's like mom's apple pie, but mom's got a job now."

The crave-worthy pies

Ask Cesario what sells best and he doesn't hesitate: apple pie. But there are nuances depending on the location. At the Markham store, the blueberry pie gives the apple pie a run for its money. In Midtown Toronto, strawberry rhubarb is a crowd favourite. The apple pie, though, is a common denominator across the board.

The menu has stayed pretty stable since opening, which is part of the brand's reliability. Seasonal offerings rotate in when the fruit is ready: cherry and peach in the summer, key lime for warmer weather, pumpkin and mixed berries in the fall and winter. Nothing gets added to the menu just because. If the fruit isn't right, the pie doesn't happen.

The butter tart guarantee

Sweetie Pie is known for pies, but the butter tarts have become something of a legend on their own. Cesario has a standing offer for anyone who wanders in unsure of what to order: try a butter tart, and if you don't like it, you get six of anything for free.

"I've never lost," he says.

The butter tart recipe came from years of personal research. Cesario would drive to small towns, seek out local butter tart vendors at festivals and buy whatever he could find. He loved the concept but kept running into the same problems: too much chunky crust, wrong filling-to-dough ratio, textures that were off.

So he engineered his own. The result has a crème caramel-like top layer, a gooey middle and a soft exterior, all held together by a thin, firm dough that doesn't overwhelm the filling. More filling, less dough. That's the whole philosophy in one pastry.

Growing pains and smart solutions

Getting from one store to five is no small feat, especially when you started knowing, in Cesario's words, "nothing about baking." And baking, he's quick to point out, is not the same as cooking. "When it comes to baking, everything is measured. If you don't measure it, you're not going to get the same consistency."

The challenges have been real: rising ingredient costs, higher labour costs and the constant uncertainty of running a small business. Unlike a large corporation, Sweetie Pie can't simply throw money at problems. "We have to use our brains to navigate those problems," he says.

One of their biggest moves came in 2023, when they opened an 18,000-square-foot commercial kitchen in North York. Rather than automating everything and sacrificing quality, they found a balance: the parts that could benefit from machinery got machinery; the parts that needed a human touch stayed manual. Crucially, the staff didn't lose out. Manual labour jobs became skilled labour jobs. Employees learned to operate machines, earned more and developed new expertise. Win-win.

Tracking sales data has also been key to running tight operations. By combining their own system data with payment processing data, the team can forecast what to produce, what to buy and when. That visibility across five locations helps keep the wheels turning.

What it means to be a brand

There's a moment Cesario keeps coming back to when he talks about knowing Sweetie Pie had made it. Two years in, his teenage son was out with friends in the north end of the city. The group was talking about this great new spot they'd visited downtown, near the Distillery District. Amazing butter tarts, they said. They had to go back.

His son turned to them and said, "That's my dad's place."

They didn't believe him.

"The fact that your teenage son thinks it's cool, then it must be cool."

That kind of word-of-mouth recognition is what Cesario points to when he talks about the Sweetie Pie experience. You walk into someone's house carrying that box and people light up. "Oh my God, you brought Sweetie Pie." That reaction, he says, is how you know you've built something real.

Advice for anyone thinking about starting something

If you ask Cesario whether you should start a business from scratch, his first answer is honest to the point of being funny: "Don't do it. Go get a job."

But then he catches himself. He's been an entrepreneur since he was 21, he's now 57 and he wouldn't trade it. Running a business, he says, is like walking a tightrope. You wake up every morning not knowing what's going to blow up. You miss birthdays sometimes. The money doesn't come first; it comes at the end if you do the work well.

"A lot of entrepreneurs don't do it for the money. We do it for the satisfaction of sitting at the kitchen table, coming up with an idea and then realizing that idea into something."

What started at his mother's kitchen table six years ago is now a recognizable brand in Toronto and the surrounding area, with multiple locations, a commercial kitchen, a loyal following and butter tarts that nobody can eat just one of.

Come see what the hype is about

Whether you're after the award-winning blueberry pie, the legendary butter tarts that nobody has ever turned down or a classic apple pie that tastes like it came straight from someone's kitchen, Sweetie Pie has something worth the trip. Stop in at one of their Toronto or Unionville locations, order online at mysweetiepie.ca or find them on Instagram at @mysweetiepie.ca. One bite and you'll understand why people walk in carrying that box like they've brought the whole room a gift.