If you had told Kate Green a decade ago that she would one day be baking pies for a living, she would have thought the notion laughable. And yet… Kate’s Slice of Sausalito is a southern Marin runaway success story. A career fashion executive with vice president of design stints at major brands, Kate’s path to pie baker was unexpected. It started in 2019 when she and her husband, Dennis (also a designer), opened Karl the Store—a small, chic and eclectic mid-century modern home goods emporium on the waterfront in Sausalito.

Not long after they opened a shopper came in, drawn in by a retro tin sign in the window with a ’50s-style script: Ruth’s Home Made Pies. When told the sign was décor and no pies awaited within, the woman was sorely disappointed. Kate had an idea: Why couldn’t there be pies?

Kate had always loved to bake, having spent many happy hours as a kid in the kitchen. She applied for a home bakers license, borrowed her grandmother’s pie crust recipe and got to work. Her first pies featured tart Montmorency cherries baked under a flaky lattice crust. When the pies quickly sold, she made more. Meyer lemons from her backyard, cherries and marionberries from Washington, heirloom apples from Sebastopol—all went into her sweet creations and remain staples of her repertoire today.

The pandemic increased interest as homebound Marinites used the pies as greeting cards—finding connection by leaving Kate’s creations on the doorsteps of friends and loved ones. As Covid restrictions ebbed, interest in Kate’s pies did not. In fact, word spread.

Working with up to three assistants, Kate produces 2 to 4 (9-inch) and 6 to 12 (5-inch) pies a day—a number that more than doubles during the holiday season. Kate brings her pies into the shop every morning at 11am. But better be quick! You’ll be lucky if you can find one by noon.

Slice of Sausalito
1201 Bridgeway
SliceofSausalito.com