Owner, master pie baker – Anita Hyde

As a kid, my grandmother’s kitchen in her shack-like house was my happy place. She created food from her garden and seemed to never use a measuring cup. No wonder as a young woman, I loved baking. I could easily bake myself happy. That came to an end when the need for “a real job” landed me in a career that lastest over 20 years in commercial insurance. It paid well – but the hours took me out of the kitchen. Finally, God blessed me with a corporate layoff which allowed me a couple of years to find my oven again.

The lay-off was a peculiar answer to prayers I’d been praying. You see, I had a very unusual encounter a few years back. Some would call it a vision. I was taken to Heaven and shown a vast banquet for children. There were tables of food and children as far as you could see. An angel told me that all these had died of starvation. Then I was told “YOU! Feed the children and remember Schindler!”

Giving Back
So, what do you do with that? Well, I started sending money to missionaries who I knew were aggressively pulling children out of horrid poverty and caring for them, like Heidi Baker. (google her….she’s like Mother Theresa on steroids.) I knew that I had been asked to make a bigger impact, however, so I prayed lots, asking for a business that would open me up to more money because it takes a lot of money to feed children.

It seems that God used my appetite to answer that prayer. I started craving a place to go where I could meet friends for coffee and pie but found no such place exists in my area. I saw this as a need I should fill and began the quest.

Visit Iris Global.

About Pie Heaven
You might feel like you’ve stepped into your Grandma’s house when you enter the pie shop and breathe in the heavenly aromatherapy of pies baking.

The menu is inspired by the comfort classics from our childhood like apple pie, chicken pot pie, chocolate pie, and much more. Everything is handmade, from scratch in small batches. You can usually pick up a slice or sit down and enjoy it with coffee. You can also pre-order or grab a ready-to-go pie too.

Our team is passionate about

…making great pies that rival Grandma’s

…supporting works that feed starving children

…making you feel the love.

We are in Atlantic Beach Florida at 1980 Mayport Road.

Oh…we sing too and don’t understand why they won’t give us the mic at church….

Christmas
4th of July
Birthday

Our Commitment
We promise

• Pure ingredients
• No hydrogenated oils
• No high fructose corn syrup
• No preservatives
• No artificial sweeteners

Weekly Anita’s in the markets looking for the best fruit, whether fresh or fresh frozen. We never use processed pie fillers from cans. That would be so wrong. Our handmade crust is made with unbleached flour, pure butter, and pure lard.

We have special order options for gluten-free, vegan, or sugar-free options with Xylitol or Swerve

We don’t speak keto or paleo but if you describe what you want we might make it for you.

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An insurance agent heard a higher calling … and we’re all the richer for it

One of Anita Hyde’s jobs was selling insurance to major companies — comprehensive policies that had all the bells and whistles businesses needed to cover their collective biz-butts, certainly not a mere car insurance policy for that just-graduated coed next door. It was high-stakes protection for international industries and it was supplanting her happy place memories.

Ms. Hyde had spent her childhood in her grandmother’s kitchen, watching the woman create delicious fare from simple ingredients, mostly grown on her land. She learned all she could about preparing food; most important, how to prepare a meal with love and care. To have one’s youthful joy vanish is dreadful.

Then came layoffs from the insurance game and, rather than it being a disaster, it was a godsend — literally! Her joy returned abundantly and she set out to share it.

Anita tells of the cynosure she experienced that let the scales fall from her eyes, and like St. Paul, she could clearly see her mission: Tables laden with food, hungry children eating happily of the bounty there. An archangel advised her: “Feed the children and remember Schindler!” (We assume he meant Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who saved the lives of roughly 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. You probably saw the movie.) She knew she wanted — needed — to fulfill this mission, but couldn’t find a place to explore the options with friends. A cozy place, with good coffee, great pie and a pleasant, peaceful ambience where they could gather to discuss how to obey an angel … what would a mission need?

So she began a mini-mission on her own. She made an inviting, idyllic haven where folks could think lofty thoughts and eat sublime slices, half-sized or whole pies — fruit pies, sweet pies, pot pies, whole meals in a handmade crust (we’re drooling for you, Shepherd’s Pie!) and familiar faves from happy times gone by. Buttermilk Chess! Margarita Key Lime — we are in Florida, remember?

Here are some of the baking basics: Everything that Pie Heaven Bakery Café makes is natural, real, made-from-scratch and just as yummy as Grandma’s, if not yummier. Hyde’s team of bakers support works that feed starving children all over the world. And they all want us to feel the love when we visit the shop.

Anita Hyde graciously answered our questionnaire about her business in Atlantic Beach, and of course put in a good word for the Good Word. You know, that archangel thing.

Writer Marlene Dryden