For This Pinay Pastry Queen, Closing a Business Isn’t Easy as Pie

Melody Lorenzo of Sweet Condesa — the Pinay pie queen herself — is handing back the keys to her kitchen in August. “I don’t want to call it closing,” Lorenzo says. “Sweet Condesa as a brand will still remain,” but she is going to stop baking, at least for now. She plans to wind down gracefully with two final afternoon tea parties on Sunday, June 30, and Sunday, July 21.

For the past seven years, Sweet Condesa contributed to the rising Filipino bakery scene in the Bay Area. Lorenzo was a single mom working a government job, who took a baking class at Miette in 2008 and started making cakes and cookies for family and friends. She finally got a commercial kitchen in Oakland and launched Sweet Condesa with wedding cakes and mini desserts in 2017. But it was her wildly popular pies, introduced in 2019 at Undiscovered SF, that gained Sweet Condesa a cult following at the San Ramon Farmers Market. Lorenzo subleased a kitchen at 518 South Van Ness in San Francisco from Tselogs in 2022 and did successful crowdfunding to purchase $30,000 in new equipment. In addition to weddings and parties, the plan was to continue growing with pickup and delivery, preorders for holiday pies, and wholesale to coffee shops.

Those opportunities never quite worked out. Sweet Condesa was never able to offer pickup, because the city denied the permit, Lorenzo says. Her delivery partners faltered, when Pastel shut down delivery in 2022, sold its online platform to Bentocart, and rebranded as Neon. Lorenzo was able to hire one part-time employee, but another quit after only three weeks, right before Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, the heart of her business took a big hit. Lorenzo reports wedding orders dropped by 50 percent in 2023. “They’re my bread and butter,” she says. “Every month, I’m just so worried that I’m not going to be able to pay my rent.” She still received inquiries, but when she responded, couples would go silent. Chatting with her longtime favorite wedding venue, they agreed that many couples have been cutting back on budgets and desserts. At two recent weddings, “The couple only ordered a cake from Safeway, and doughnuts from a local shop,” Lorenzo says.

At one point, Lorenzo dreamed of opening her own bakery, but she quickly scrapped that idea during the pandemic. “I want to take care of myself. Because at the end of the day, how are you going to continue to run your business, if you’re not taking care of yourself?”

But true to style, Sweet Condesa plans to send off this party with a stunning dessert spread. Lorenzo is offering two final afternoon teas, popping up at Tselogs in Daly City. Her most ambitious menu yet features 12 savory and sweet bites for $125 per person. Growing up in the Philippines, she enjoyed merienda or a morning snack with ginger tea. But after years as a wedding caterer, afternoon tea offers a beautiful format to showcase petite pastries.

Settle in with a salted egg salad sandwich, which takes the Filipino accompaniment for fried fish and tucks it tidily inside brioche bread. The requisite scone comes with wild blueberries and calamansi curd. A new mango float cake — a type of icebox cake — layers sunny yellow Manila mangoes and graham cracker crumble. The tsokolate silk pie is a personal favorite, using Auro dark chocolate sourced from the Philippines. “It’s not typical grocery store chocolate,” Lorenzo says. “It has intense, floral notes.”

Sweet Condesa

Back by popular demand, the queso de bola rosemary shortbread is rich with buttery Edam cheese and fragrant rosemary. “People are asking me if I’m going to write a cookbook, because they want this recipe,” she says. Lorenzo challenged herself to work with dalandan bitter orange, which stars in a creamsicle panna cotta. The tea comes courtesy of Ina Botanicals, likely the Earl Grey with rose and an herbal option. Lorenzo arranges everything on acacia platters and pulls out her proper tea set from the Netherlands, patterned with flowers and butterflies.

Ultimately, Lorenzo hopes to continue Sweet Condesa through collaborations and workshops, offering consulting and support to other aspiring entrepreneurs and bakers, especially women of color. “This is my love letter to the folks who supported me for the last seven years,” Lorenzo says. “It’s been quite a journey. Sweet Condesa has been part of so many celebrations. It’s sad, but this is not the end of my story. One way or another, Sweet Condesa is still going to be here and part of the community.”

Afternoon tea tickets are available via the Sweet Condesa website, along with preorders for the last round of Pinay pies, dubbed Christmas in July.

Disclosure: Becky Duffett was the editorial director for Pastel prior to its shutdown in 2022. She has never had any affiliation with Bentocart or Neon.

Ari Simphoukham