Upper Crust Pie Bakery

Upper Crust Pie Bakery is a Kansas institution — a sisters-owned, family-recipe pie bakery in downtown Overland Park, operating since 2005, named best pie shop in Kansas by both Food & Wine and USA Today, producing 500–600 pies a week from recipes handed down through three generations of Kansas women.¹

Description

Upper Crust Pie Bakery occupies a dedicated storefront at 7943 Santa Fe Drive in downtown Overland Park, where it has operated since November 2011. The bakery produces 500 to 600 pies per week, Wednesday through Saturday, in eight to sixteen rotating flavors — including signature varieties like gooseberry, blackberry sour cream, chess, oatmeal, German chocolate, and strawberry rhubarb. Recipes trace directly to the founders’ family: their grandmother Lorene Jost and their mother Patricia (“Pie Master Pat”) Nuss, who guided the sisters from the outset.

The bakery has been recognized as among the very best in the state. Food & Wine magazine named it co-best pie in Kansas in December 2021, and USA Today independently named it the best pie shop in Kansas in 2021. Travel publications and national food media have continued to feature it in the years since. Pre-orders, pie flights, and gift cards are available through the bakery’s website.

Before finding its permanent home, Upper Crust built its audience over several years at the Overland Park Farmers Market (beginning in 2005) and spent six years operating as a weekend bakery inside the basement of Pryde’s Old Westport — a beloved Kansas City kitchen and housewares shop — before transitioning to its own storefront in 2011.

Ownership and history

Sisters Jan Knobel and Elaine VanBuskirk grew up in Marion, Kansas — a small agricultural community roughly three hours southwest of the Kansas City metro. Marion was not a restaurant town; it was a town where pie was made at home, from scratch, with family recipes. The sisters grew up baking with their grandmother Lorene Jost and their mother Patricia Nuss, absorbing techniques and recipes that had been passed down across generations.

By the mid-2000s, living in the Kansas City area, Knobel and VanBuskirk found themselves wishing they could find pie that tasted like what they’d grown up with. Unable to find it, they decided to make it themselves. In 2005, with guidance from their mother — whom they credit as “Pie Master Pat Nuss” — the sisters launched Upper Crust at the Overland Park Farmers Market. The response was strong enough to expand to a weekend operation inside Pryde’s Old Westport, a legendary Kansas City kitchen shop, where they operated for six years alongside the existing retail business.

On November 9, 2011, Upper Crust opened its own dedicated storefront at 7943 Santa Fe Drive in downtown Overland Park, a space they have now occupied for more than fourteen years.² The bakery emphasizes the “small bakery experience” — customers can see pies being made in the open kitchen — and the owners remain hands-on operators dedicated to the quality of a product rooted entirely in family and Kansas heritage.

Links

• uppercrustpiebakery.com
• Yelp listing
• Visit Overland Park directory

Sources

Disputes

None at this time.

Footnotes

1. https://uppercrustpiebakery.com/ — official website. Asserts: name “Upper Crust Pie Bakery,” address 7943 Santa Fe Dr Overland Park KS 66204, current operations (Wed–Sat), pre-orders and pie flights. ↩

2. https://www.thepitchkc.com/pies-the-upper-crust-bakery-opens-today-in-op/ — The Pitch KC. Asserts: Santa Fe Drive location opened November 9, 2011; sisters Jan Knobel and Elaine Van Buskirk; previously at Pryde’s Old Westport for six years; Overland Park Farmers Market origin. ↩