On the whole, pie production is up in the Mission this Thanksgiving season, according to an informal survey of three pie-making bakeries in the Mission District.
We asked Mission Pie, Arizmendi and Tartine Bakery how many pies they produced this year, and while they weren’t able to provide hard numbers for last year (they were, after all, slammed with customers), Mission Pie and Arizmendi reported an increase in production.
Tartine Bakery reported a slight decrease in production, although staff there said any drop was picked up by its counterpart, the Manufactory, which was also baking pies. (More on the Manufactory later.)
Here are the numbers:
Mission Pie reported baking more than 2,000 pies during the two-day Thanksgiving period. Staff there was not able to give totals for the week, but did say the numbers were higher than last year. The bakery said 640 of those were pumpkin pies, a number that has remained flat compared to last year.
Arizmendi Bakery reported baking 100 pies this year for the Thanksgiving season, a baker there told us, which was up 10 to 15 percent compared to last year. Sixty-two of the pies were pumpkin, and 38 were apple crisp.
Tartine Bakery reported baking 1,500 pies for the week, 500 the day before Thanksgiving alone. It made 300 pumpkin pies for the week. These numbers were down from last year, according to one of the bakers, largely because the Manufactory has also begun producing pie.
Manufactory staff told us that it made some of the large pies for Tartine on 18th Street, but it independently baked 342 miniature pies (or “tarts”) — 200 pumpkin, 100 pecan and 42 apple for its sales. In addition, it produced 100 small ice cream pies, as well as 26 large ice cream pies.
Regardless of where you buy your pie, Happy Thanksgiving from Mission Local.
*Tartine Manufactory produced pumpkin “tarts”
We originally set out to report this year’s turkey sales, but it seems turkeys are much more controversial than pie. Our friends at Gus’s Grocery and Bi-Rite Market both said they do not share their turkey numbers.
Gobble, gobble.