One of Toronto’s most beloved pie shops started on the TTC
As Wanda Beaver boarded the subway before class in the mid-1980s, she gripped a carrying case with three slats — each filled with a pie destined for a restaurant in downtown Toronto.
At the time, Beaver was baking pies as a side hustle while studying graphic design at OCAD University. But what started off as a temporary operation evolved into Wanda’s Pie in the Sky — a more than three-decade pursuit and Kensington Market staple.
Wanda's Pie in the Sky is located in Kensington Market, where the establishment found its forever home in 2007. (CTV News/ Hannah Alberga)
“It just took over,” Beaver told CTV News Toronto.
Before Beaver became a nomad delivering pies on the TTC, she picked cherries, apples, pears, peaches, raspberries and rhubarb from her backyard in St. Catharines, Ont.
At nine-years-old, Beaver packaged cherries into her first buttery pie crust.
In the late 80s, Beaver’s wholesale bakery, which she was running out of a stone oven that could only fit six pies at a time, graduated to an industrial space in the Junction, which later moved to Etobicoke and Yorkville
Finally in 2007, Wanda’s found its “forever home,” as Beaver put it, after signing her second 10-year lease at the corner of Augusta Avenue and Oxford Street, right in the nook of the neighbourhood.
“Kensington to me is the heart of the city,” she said.
Wanda's Pie in the Sky is located in Kensington Market, where the establishment found its forever home in 2007. (CTV News/ Hannah Alberga)By the time Wanda’s settled into Kensington, the business had leaped from a wholesale operation into a customer-facing cafe selling slices of pie, seasonal soups, quiches, pierogis and grilled cheese.
But still, the beating heart of the business remained sour cherry, strawberry-rhubarb, coconut cream, pecan and key lime pies — a sweet retreat for Torontonians, specifically over the last nearly two-years.
Wanda's Pie in the Sky is located in Kensington Market, where the establishment found its forever home in 2007. (CTV News/ Hannah Alberga)
“The pie is a comfort food,” Beaver said. “If anything, people have needed more of that.”
This past Thanksgiving, Wanda’s sold 2,500 pies — primarily apple and pumpkin — and already, the team is mentally preparing for the holiday rush come December.
Wanda's Pie in the Sky is located in Kensington Market, where the establishment found its forever home in 2007. (CTV News/ Hannah Alberga)
“We want the experience of coming in here to be like a warm blanket,” Beaver said. While she never professionally pursued graphic design, the cafe’s atmosphere — aqua painted walls, yellow lamp shades dangling from the ceiling and multi-coloured high top stools — truly captures that vision.
“If a [customer] has any stress coming in with them, we want to disarm them with the atmosphere that we have here.”
ABOUT TABLE TALK
Table Talk is a weekly CTV News Toronto series that explores the people who shape Toronto’s food scene, published every Friday at CTVNewsToronto.ca.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Spectacular aurora light show to be seen across Canada Friday night
A rare and severe solar storm is expected to bring spectacular displays of the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, across much of Canada and parts of the United States on Friday night.
Town of Fort Nelson, B.C., ordered to evacuate due to wildfire
The entire town of Fort Nelson, B.C., as well as the nearby Fort Nelson First Nation, has been ordered to evacuate due to an out-of-control wildfire.
Bouchard lifts Edmonton Oilers to 4-3 overtime win over Canucks in Game 2
Evan Bouchard scored 5:38 into overtime and the Edmonton Oilers bounced back for a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Friday.
McGill University seeks emergency injunction to dismantle pro-Palestinian encampment
McGill University has filed a request for an injunction to have the pro-Palestinian encampment removed from its campus.
Which Canadian cities have the highest and lowest grocery prices?
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
Swarm of 20,000 bees gather around woman’s car west of Toronto
A swarm of roughly 20,000 bees gathered around a woman’s car in the parking lot of Burlington Centre.
Video shows naked raccoon catching B.C. family by surprise
When Marvin Henschel spotted a strange and hairless creature wandering through a front lawn in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, he could barely believe his eyes.
Barron Trump declines to serve as an RNC delegate
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's youngest son, Barron Trump, has declined to serve as a delegate at this summer’s Republican National Convention, according to a senior Trump campaign adviser and a statement from Melania Trump's office.
Out-of-control wildfire prompts evacuation alert for Fort McMurray, Saprae Creek Estates Friday night
An evacuation alert was issued for two Wood Buffalo communities Friday night, as crews battled an out-of-control wildfire near Fort McMurray.