The sort-of secret: The New Pie Company, a pop-up that specializes in whimsical pies
You may have heard of it if: You have ever participated in #FreePieFriday, their weekly giveaway
But you probably haven’t tried it yet because: This two-person operation sells fewer than 100 pies per drop

The next time you find yourself thinking that people are generally unpredictable, consider their reliable appetite for free dessert. Tapping into this shared, eternal human truth is how The New Pie Company—which specializes in whimsical, imaginative pies—progressed from a spur-of-the-moment idea to a quickly growing business. Shiela Labao and Miguel Hernandez, the pair behind the operation, ran a pie giveaway on Instagram at the end of March to spread the word about their fledgling company—a move that exponentially increased their follower count, and started a weekly affair.

It doesn’t hurt that these pies look pretty fantastical. At a recent pop-up, the PB Treats pie was on display with a cloud-like top layer of peanut butter–swirled marshmallow fluff. Below it was a decadent dark chocolate pudding, which in turn rested on a sticky, crunchy crisped rice and peanut butter crust. Labao, who’s behind most of the recipes, is keen on experimentation—especially when it comes to unconventional crust ideas.

Take the bananas Foster pie, for instance. Labao is a fan of retro desserts, and—not having seen them on a Toronto menu—decided to bring the popular ’50s treat of flambéed, caramelized bananas into the 21st century. She caramelizes extra-ripe bananas on the stove with sugar and vanilla, layers them over a brown-butter rum filling, and sets the lot on a pitch-black cocoa crust. Black cocoa—the dark, intense Dutch processed cocoa powder used to make Oreos—is the perfect foil for a gooey, creamy banana filling.

Labao grew up in the Philippines, where some of her earliest memories involve buko, a coconut custard pie that originates in the country’s Laguna province. “We draw flavours from our imaginations, but also from our home countries. Miguel’s family is from El Salvador, and mine is from the Philippines,” says Labao. “I had a lot of pressure creating the buko pie, since I knew that if I didn’t do it right, word would get back to my mum!” For it, Labao folds shredded young coconut meat into an airy, lightly sweet coconut cream, all set on a super flaky all-butter crust. It’s delicate, subtle and just sweet enough—a pie as good for breakfast next to a cup of black coffee as it is for dessert.

Like so many pandemic-era pop-ups, this one has an unlikely origin story. During the day, Labao works on the operations side of a venture debt firm; Hernandez is a UX designer. But in their tight-knit group of friends, they’re the designated baker and chef, respectively. (Before the pandemic, Labao was also taking pastry courses at George Brown to sharpen her skills).