For many people nationwide, a homemade pie is as symbolic of the American Dream as baseball and a house with a white picket fence. For Alli, Erin and Cat Blakely, three sisters from Northern Virginia, pie is also a personal dream that they plan on bringing to Georgetown by the end of this summer with the opening of their pie shop, O’B Sweet.
The sisters, who grew up in Great Falls, spent a lot of time in Georgetown throughout their childhood, attending church at St. John’s on O Street. “We’re just local girls, and that’s why we wanted to stay in Georgetown with our shop,” said Erin.
They started their baking careers early in life when their mother taught them how to can fruit and make pies, “to keep us all busy,” said Erin. After following separate careers in different fields, the Blakelys finally decided to fulfill their dream of operating a family business.
“We’re sisters. There’s three of us. We’re all two years apart,” said Erin. “We’re best friends and baking pies was something that brought us all together having fun even on the holidays after our lives kind of took us in different directions.”
Even the name the sisters chose reflects their family roots. “We’re Scott-Irish, so the ‘O’ kind of brings in that part of us,” said Erin. “The ‘B’ is for our last name, Blakely, and the ‘Sweet,’ obviously, is because we’re sweet.”
The trio is currently looking at retail space at 3833 Prospect St., according to Robert Tack, the real estate broker representing O’B Sweet. The market, Tack noted, is ready for a new sweet tooth craze—a refreshing idea noting the area’s baffling cupcake fetish.
“I think they’re gonna do well with their concept,” he said.
The Blakelys are already setting themselves apart from average Georgetown bakeries and cupcakeries. The shop will feature an array of savory and sweet pies in three sizes: nine inches, seven inches, and “Cuppies,” single-serving mini pies that are original to O’B Sweet. Because most of their fruit comes from local growers, their menu of flavors rotates seasonally, while their cream pies will be available year round. The shop will cater events as well as delivering pies and providing seating where customers can enjoy their Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Cuppies with coffee or hot cocoa.
While the shop has a few months until their grand opening, O’B Sweet’s catering business is already up and running. The sisters have supplied weddings, birthdays and dinner parties with their homemade pies and plan to continue this service through the process of opening their store.
“Pies are really all-American classics, so we’re trying to take that and make it more mainstream,” said Erin. “It’s giving people the option, instead of going to cupcakes, to go to pies… There’s nothing like this in Georgetown.”
