Back in 2020, Sydney Adams Yi was looking for the perfect space for her new bakery.
She had learned the ins and outs of pie making from the pie queen herself, her Granny Pat, getting her start by making decadent pies for lucky family members, friends and coworkers. Their positive feedback gave her the confidence to pursue baking full-time, which meant she needed to find a spot to house all her delicious, homemade creations.
While looking around town for potential spaces, she toured an empty building on Tucson’s east side. While the spot was great, she felt like it was too large for her first bakery. Instead, she decided to move into an available space just a few doors down.
It didn’t take long for Adams Yi to become east-side royalty. Her pies and other baked goods quickly captured the hearts of the community. If you need to pick up a birthday treat or impress family members during the holidays, Sydney’s Sweet Shoppe is the place to go.
As her baking talents became more and more popular, Adams Yi realized it was time to expand. As she started to look for potential spots, she learned that same space she toured years ago — the one that was too big at the time — was available.
Now, it’s the perfect size for her shop.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, Sydney’s Sweet Shoppe will be opening their new location, located in Suite 201 at 8963 E. Tanque Verde Road, just two doors down from the place that started it all.
“Having it still available after all these years felt like it was meant to be — kismet!” Adams Yi said in an email.
Sydney Adams Yi, owner of Sydney's Sweet Shoppe, poses for a portrait in front of a wall filled with family photos on March 4, 2021.
Baking has always been close to Adams Yi’s heart thanks to her Granny Pat.
In the summer of 2018, Adams Yi asked Granny Pat to teach her how to make her unforgettable pies. Granny Pat dusted off her treasured 1940s cookbook and taught Adams Yi everything she needed to know.
“Spending countless days and nights in our home kitchen, my grandma shared the secrets of her craft: the importance of exact measurements, baking with quality ingredients and recognizing the perfect texture of dough by feel,” Adams Yi said. “She learned these lessons from her own home economics teacher and she passed them on to me with patience and precision. She never took shortcuts and I’ve carried that same meticulous approach into my own baking.”
With all this new pie knowledge and finally perfecting the art of making a tender, flaky crust, Adams Yi began making pies for her family, friends and coworkers. She even had 30 pie orders one Christmas.
That’s when she realized she could turn her passion for baking into a business, officially opening Sydney’s Sweet Shoppe in Suite 209 of 8969 E. Tanque Verde Road in 2020.
“Customers were excited about having a bakery on the east side of town that focuses primarily on pies,” Adams Yi said. “Pie shops are a rarity these days, and many have shared that they love how I’ve brought back a classic tradition with a fresh twist.”
Stepping into Sydney’s Sweet Shoppe is like stepping into a dessert wonderland. Your eyes are instantly drawn to the glass cases that are filled with whole pies and slices. It’s hard to focus on anything else except the perfectly piped whipped cream borders on banana cream and chocolate cream pies or the perfectly symmetrical lattices on the apple and blueberry pies displayed in the cases.
You're greeted by the smiling faces of Adams Yi and her father Leon Adams, who are glad to help as you stare at the chocolate whoopie pies with fluffy filling peeking out of the sides.
Sydney's Sweet Shoppe has a long list of pie flavors, including both fruit and cream flavors. Pictured is cherry.
It’s these hypnotizing treats that keep customers coming back for more. But over time, they started to tell Adams Yi that they’d enjoy having a space where they could enjoy a slice of pie over a cup of coffee with a friend. Adams Yi totally agreed, which led her to expand the shop to give customers just that.
She's recently been hard at work renovating the space to make sure it looks as good as her pies taste. She has even been filming the renovation process for Instagram, aptly naming the series “Sydney’s Bakeover.”
After months of hard work, running back and forth between shops and taking on Thanksgiving orders, the new location is finally ready.
Customers can expect to see new menu items like Texas sheet cake, carrot cake, chocolate zucchini cake, whoopie pies, gourmet cupcakes from Sweet LoriBelle’s, coffee from Tucson Coffee Roasters and, of course, every pie you can think of.
After four years of hard work and serving up delicious pies, Adams Yi is ready to take on this new chapter. If her Granny Pat is the pie queen, I think it’s safe to say Adams Yi has earned the title of pie princess.
“We’ve worked hard to create a welcoming atmosphere and I truly hope they’ll find it fulfilling,” Adams Yi said. “We feel confident that this space will be exactly what people have been looking for — a cozy spot to enjoy our desserts and make lasting memories.”
