Eyes on the pie

Local couple shoots for the sky with first San Antonio location of cult pie shop

Pecan pie, Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop, Colleyville

Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop will be landing in San Antonio in the fall.

Photo courtesy of Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop

A local couple is bringing a cult-favorite pie brand to Alamo City for its San Antonio debut. Opening in fall 2022, Katie and Barry Crossland will bake up an outpost of Southern darling Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop at 2903 North Loop 1604 East.

Founded in 2013 by Scott and Meredith Layton, Buttermilk Sky is based on recipes from their maternal grandmothers. The offerings include Key lime, peanut butter cream, apple, and the I-40, a take on classic pecan with a shortbread crust, chocolate chips, and toasted coconut.

The downhome pies, made from scratch in-house, have helped propel the company’s growth. There are now locations spread throughout the South, including several in the brand’s home state of Tennessee. It has also enjoyed traction in Texas, with a cluster of franchises in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

When the Crossland's decided to bring Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop to San Antonio, neither had visited a location of the cult chain.

“A coworker began bringing pies back from Fort Worth,” Katie explains, “they were so good that we decided to open a store.”

This will be the first Buttermilk Sky Pie location in San Antonio; it will also be the first business venture for the couple. Barry works as a manufacturing manager for H-E-B, and Katie is a chemist.

An avid home baker, Katie says her scientific training will come in handy for her new venture. Pie-making, after all, requires a certain amount of rigor.

“Barry refuses to believe it, though,” she laughs.

“I’m more of a throw a pinch here, throw a pinch there kind of guy,” agrees Barry, although he says the Buttermilk Sky recipes don’t need any tweaks.

In addition to the headlining pies, the shop will serve coffee and treats like thumbprint cookies and cloud cookies — shortbread and pecan ball creations dusted in powdered sugar. Though the business is grab-and-go, some seating will be available nearby for those who can’t wait to sneak a bite.

That feeling of anticipation is something the Crosslands understand. While waiting for their own equipment to arrive, they have been traveling to North Texas for some tasty research and development. They recently returned with an order of 48 four-inch pies.

Though the product is consistent across the chain, the pair still considers the San Antonio location distinctly theirs.

“Even though we’re a franchise, we’re very much a small business,” says Katie. “This is our baby!”

Barry concurs, “we’re very excited to be with the [San Antonio] community.”

openings desserts

NYT loves AUS

Pastry chef from San Antonio makes New York Times Best Bakeries list

Comadre Panadería/Instagram

Comadre Panadería is known for nostalgic Mexican bakes with feminine flair.

The New York Times has once again shined its spotlight on Austin’s culinary scene. It included Comadre Panadería, an Austin bakery by San Antonio native Mariela Camacho, on its new list of the 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now.

Interim food critic Priya Krishna praises pastry chef Camacho’s pastries that include conchas and her signature pink cake. “Despite their saccharine appearances, not one of the desserts is overly cloying, and even the coffee drinks (Texas pecan horchata! Cranberry vanilla agua fresca!) strike the playful tone of the pastries,” she writes.

Comadre Panadería has been widely recognized, including by this publication; Camacho, who is now based in Ausitn, won Pastry Chef of the Year in the 2023 CultureMap Austin Tastemaker Awards. She also earned a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.

Camacho and Comadre as a whole are both invested in using baked goods to make a more equitable world, from the bakery's early days as a fundraiser for disaster relief, to a current insistence on charging enough to support ethical and organic foods, and paying staff enough to keep up with rising costs in Austin.

Although Camacho was born in San Antonio and started her baking career there, she also spent a significant time in Seattle, Washington, where Comadre started as a pop-up. According to Austin Monthly, she then moved back to San Antonio, and then to Austin. But no matter where she is, the Mexican cooking traditions of her ancestors take precedent.

Mariela Camacho of Comadre Panaderia in Austin Mariela Camacho, Comadre Panaderia. Courtesy photo

The Times also recognized Houston's Koffeteria. Krishna hails the bakery for pastry chef-owner Vanarin Kuch’s creative fare that includes dishes such as beef pho kolaches, Chinese sausage breakfast tacos, and butter mochi.

“Some of Mr. Kuch’s offerings are rooted in his Cambodian American identity — he makes cornbread with the coconutty, scallion-forward flavors of Cambodian street corn — while others are odes to Houston’s multicultural makeup. But most of the fun of Koffeteria is having no idea what Mr. Kuch will do next, and eagerly awaiting his next innovation,” Krishna writes.

Open since 2019, Koffeteria has been riding high this year. It earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Bakery and a CultureMap Houston Tastemaker Award for Pastry Chef of the Year.

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Comadre Panadería and Koffeteria are the only Texas establishments to make the Times’ list. Only California and New York City, which each have three representatives, earn more recognition.

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