By Giselle Garza Lerma

The holidays are almost here, which means that family-friend gatherings, parties and potlucks are upon us. Don’t yet know what to bring as a guest, or to provide as a host? I have a holiday suggestion that won’t let you down.

If you are a pastry lover, Butter Love Bakeshop in the Outer Richmond – at Balboa Street near 38th Avenue – is where you want to be.

Butter Love has quickly become my go-to pastry stop to buy treats for my colleagues, for events or simply for myself to indulge in the shop’s miniature ube pie.

The bakery has a rotating selection of pastries made fresh daily, and it offers specials like chicken pot pie on the weekends and my favorite – “Ube Tuesday.” On each Tuesday, the shop’s typical croissants, pies, donuts and cinnamon rolls are infused with the flavor of the Japanese sweet potato. You can never have too much ube, in my opinion.

The shop also offers pizza and bread pudding on Saturdays, with more rotating options on the weekends.

If you really want to wow your in-laws, new significant other or just make a good impression at a holiday gathering, I suggest bringing an offering of pie. Not just any pie from the grocery store, but one that’s special. I would go with a pie – or a few – from Butter Love.

“What makes their pies so special?” you may ask.

“It’s an all-butter crust – that’s where the ‘Butter Love’ comes from,” said Esa Yonn-Brown, the owner of Butter Love Bakeshop. “Most people don’t use all-butter because it’s actually really challenging to do,” she said.

Before opening the bakery, when Yonn-Brown was craving pie, she could never find one she liked in the City. She would travel to her mom’s house to get a slice.

“It took me about a year to perfect my mom’s pie dough,” she said. “All that’s in our pie dough is flour, butter, salt and water. There’s nothing extraordinary about the ingredients other than the technique that’s used. It just takes a lot of practice.”

In the early 2000s, Yonn-Brown rented a kitchen space to bake and sell pies at markets. In 2010, Butter Love Bakeshop officially became a business.

Yonn-Brown said Butter Love tries to use as many local ingredients as possible, and their staff puts time, dedication and creativity into their work.

A great example of their artistry can be seen with their Christmas pies. These pies are an aged, fortified fruit cake, which takes about two months to make. The cake gets fortified with rum once a week. The making of this cake is a family tradition, as Yonn-Brown’s grandfather used to bake them.

“It’s kind of a labor of love,” she said. “I do it for my own joy, and it makes me happy that people are willing to buy it.”

In addition to this handcrafted cake, for the holiday season Butter Love offers holiday cookies and packaged marshmallows, along with their regular pastries.

Christmas isn’t the only time to stop by Butter Love. The shop is currently taking orders for the week of Thanksgiving. Butter Love is offering apple, pecan, pumpkin and a “wild card” pie. The pie comes as is, and there are currently no modifications offered due to the volume of orders.

Yonn-Brown suggests sending in pie orders as soon as possible, as they cut them off a week before Thanksgiving – in some cases sooner depending on whether they receive too many.

While pies are the reason Butter Love came to life, the shop has begun to offer something that many bakeries don’t. On weekend evenings, customers can drop by the shop for “Nite Cookies,” specifically created cookies available for purchase at the take-out window of the bakery every Friday and Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m.

“I’m a real cookie person,” Yonn-Brown said. “I like cookies. They’re like instant gratification.”

Yonn-Brown is very integrated into the Richmond community. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the neighborhood helped keep the business afloat via donations to a GoFundMe account after the shop did not receive the first round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.

“I felt really uncomfortable doing it, but I was like, ‘I don’t know what else to do, I have to make sure my employees are taken care of and my family,’” she said.

After she finally received the loan two months later, she decided – with the consent of those that contributed – to give the money back to the community.

She used the funds to purchase groceries for people in the neighborhood during the pandemic, feeding around 250 families weekly. She said she wanted her neighbors to know that they were all a part of a friends’ network.

“I appreciate the support of our community,” Yonn-Brown said. “We’re welcoming of anyone who comes through the door.”

Butter Love Bakeshop is located at 3717 Balboa St. and is open Tuesday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Nite Cookies” are available from 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Giselle Garza Lerma is a senior at San Francisco State University majoring in photojournalism and minoring in Latino Studies. See more of her work at gisellegarza.com.