Before starting her business in 2019, Tiffany Oppelt began baking pies as a labor of love. Her grandmother, named Thera, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and Thera’s pie recipe was beloved in the family. Seeking to preserve the recipe and process the difficult feelings of her grandmother’s failing health, Tiffany turned to baking. “We started as an attempt to master my Grandma Thera’s pie recipe before Alzheimer’s took her away from us and as a form of therapy through stress-baking.”
Tiffany Oppelt, of TheraPie, serving pies to guests at an event.
Mastering the pie recipe, she found herself making additional pies, and soon discovered there was a huge demand for pie. The niche, she found, “wasn’t well represented in Manhattan.” Seeking to satisfy the underserved market and continue with her baking-centric form of self-care, she developed it into a full-fledged business.
Tiffany began researching, developing a business plan, acquired a loan, and built a commercial kitchen in the lower level of her home. What started as a means of preserving her grandmother’s legacy and healing herself led to the spreading of the gifts of her grandmother to an entire city through delicious pies.
The successes of Tiffany’s business have not gone without their due accolades, being nominated for the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award in 2021, which is given to someone who demonstrates a “true entrepreneurial spirit through the creation of a new business locally, despite the risks involved,” according to the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce web-site, and receiving the 2022 Rising Professional award from the Hospitality Department in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Kansas State University.
In addition to this local recognition, the demand for Therapie and Tiffany’s well-cultivated community relationships led her to Brother’s Coffee Co, a coffee shop in central Manhattan. In a tall fridge along the back wall, customers will find the fridge regularly stocked with her pies of all sizes.
Tiffany and team members gathered in their kitchen.
If Tiffany were to give advice to a fellow entrepreneur, she recommends, “figure out your worth and surround yourself with people who are there to remind you of it when you forget.” She goes on to share that it can be easy to forget your worth, and that at times she “felt like a failure because running a business is incredibly challenging.” When she found herself feeling self-doubt, she credited her re-gained confidence to her community, which she states she is “incredibly fortunate to have built.” Her community knows her worth and holds her “accountable to owning it.”
Looking ahead to the next 1 to 3 years, Tiffany wants to increase sales and exposure locally, provide employment opportunities through her business, and continue to develop her current team members. More than anything, though, she hopes to continue providing not only “great pie,” but providing community support, partnership, and philanthropy. She also has additional entrepreneurial aspirations on the horizon, but she is still in the planning stages as she researches and dreams.
Currently, TheraPie is the only bakery in Manhattan that specializes in pie. “We have a very large range of recipes and are creating new ones regularly.” Tiffany tells us that every single pie is handmade from scratch, and that “every pie is made with love.” And it is with that that she hopes to continue “blessing the Manhattan community.”
