Brooklyn Morning — Eye on the Pies in Red Hook

By Alex Gecan

In flux between Thanksgiving and Christmas, two Red Hook bakeries are focusing on holiday staple: Pie.

Baked, a bakery and cafe at 359 Van Brundt St., and Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies at 204 Van Dyke St., are ramping up pie sales for the holiday season–though in very different ways.

While Baked has launched a winter-specific holiday menu, Steve’s adheres to its strict program of all-key lime pies, all the time.

Sam, an employee at Steve’s, opened shop this morning anticipating stiff business for the holiday season.

“We get increased orders building up to the holidays,” she said, explaining that the restaurants and retail centers that sell Steve’s’ pies generally order more pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sam confesses to enjoying an odd single-serving-sized pie in the morning, although Steve’s does not have a regular breakfast crowd.

Across the neighborhood on Van Brundt Street, E.J., a barista at Baked, discussed coffee refills with a customer, suggesting that, while she encourages customers to recycle, some people did hold on to paper cups a little too long. The customer agreed that, too often, coffee drinkers will let a cup “get funky.”