If dessert were a paradox, it would be pie. “A pie is one of the most labor-intensive things to bake, but culturally, it’s totally unserious,” says Mary Vyn, who co-owns Sawyer’s in Providence with Lydia Emmons. Consider the evidence. Pie has earned its place in an idiom – easy as pie – and in cartoons as the trope of a cooling pie stolen from a windowsill. It’s also the only dessert that has a second career as a projectile. It’s associated with grandmothers and lunch counters, potlucks and Americana. Pie isn’t haute cuisine, even though the technical skill required to make one is substantial.
“That paradox expresses something essential about the type of cuisine I’m interested in,” says Vyn, who has studied under French and Italian chefs before quickly becoming a private chef to clients such as Goldie Hawn, Simon Cowell, and former New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez. But that was another life. Today she splits her time between Mandarava, a Newburyport, MA eatery she opened with her mother, and Sawyer’s.
Emmons and Vyn helped launch Sawyer’s in 2025, then became owners just a few months after its debut. The cozy hangout spot is a wine bar and restaurant with a market attached stocked with shelves of curated nonperishables and a smattering of local foods and produce; it also serves as a pickup spot for a host of farmshares. “The merchandising is done impeccably by a woman in town who is an incredible stylist and wedding planner,” says Vyn. “The place is tended to with a very high standard of aesthetic beauty.”
Like pie, Sawyer’s is a bit of a paradox. “It teeters between having the feeling of a Parisian wine bar and of one that’s on the edge of town just before you reach the countryside,” says Vyn. She describes a spot that’s flawlessly beautiful but utterly unfussy. Every detail of the design is attended to – think draping florals and aged wood – but you wouldn’t feel uncomfortable kicking your shoes off and tucking your bare feet under you on a bar stool. “People are genuinely welcome and it feels deeply relaxing to be here. And we also care about how it looks,” says Vyn. “It sounds like a contradiction, but it’s a revolution.”
Essential to that atmosphere is the staff. “We’re a group of misfits,” says Vyn. “We’re all excellent at what we do, but we have outsider tendencies. There are more artists on staff than in any place I’ve ever experienced, and I think because of that it lends itself to being a true community gathering spot. You can come in and soak up the beauty, but if you don’t give a care, that’s alright, too.” That seemingly contradictory atmosphere is nurtured by Vyn and Emmons, whose personalities set the tone for Sawyer’s. “I’m barefoot in the mud and Lydia is incredibly glamorous,” says Vyn. “We’re two gals in an impossible industry, making it all worthwhile by way of beauty, community, and throwing a ruckus.”
Their tendency toward ruckus-making was one of the first things the two women discovered they have in common. “We both really love to throw a party,” says Vyn. That love has resulted in multiple themed events, like Beaujolais Day or Sausage Fest. “I think our signature event is a loose, food-driven, wine-driven party. Atypical celebrations tickle us and make the parties fun for everyone else.” It’s that desire to create unexpected pleasure that led Vyn to develop a pie subscription at Sawyer’s. “When I started the subscription plan, people had a hard time accepting the concept. ‘I sign up now and you give me a pie in eight months?’ they’d say. But the people who signed up say it’s amazing,” says Vyn. “Every month at a pre-determined time they come to Sawyer’s and I hand them dessert. It’s an appointment for pie.”
Pies are available in three-, six- and 12-month subscriptions, but the pie recipients don’t have all the fun. “I love baking pies because they have a whole spectrum of style and texture and flavor,” says Vyn. “Pies are a fun canvas because you can have a flaky crust or a crumble crust or a top and bottom or lattice work. Sometimes it’s a fruit pie or sometimes it’s an outsider flavor.”
That experimentation is part of what keeps Vyn coming back to the kitchen. “Once people feel comfortable with the concept and bringing these pies home, I can hit them with something unfamiliar that broadens the scope of the pleasure points of eating,” says Vyn. Subscribers can expect a familiar apple or cherry as part of their subscription, but then they might encounter a pear ginger or a tahini maple. “It becomes an adventure throughout the year,” says Vyn.
And perhaps the final paradox of pie is that all that labor, thought, and creative effort goes into something entirely unnecessary. “Pie is something no one needs, but it brings joy,” Vyn says. “And no one ever regrets it.”
Order a pie of subscriptions at SawyersMkt.com/order. Pies are ready for pick-up the 4th Wednesday of each month. Find varieties on Instagram
@sawyerspvd. Sawyer’s, 447 Broadway
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