From chicken pot pies to artichoke dip galettes and passionfruit cream pies, Rachael Strickler makes everything related to pies. She sells her baked goods under the pop-up name Ovinloven. 

Scanning her monthly schedule, pastry fiends like me can find her throughout the city and all around the East Bay. In the past few months alone Ovinloven has set up camp at Bad Walter’s, Flowerland, Oakland Yard Wine Shop and Hammerling Wines, to name just a few of her local haunts.

“It definitely is a hustle,” Strickler told me when we spoke on the phone. “I’m excited to be getting to a point where I have a bit more stability and consistency and routine.”

This year Ovinloven will be in residence every Thursday at Dolores Deluxe and then Sundays at Bender’s Bar & Grill in San Francisco, the location of her first-ever pop-up. “Then the hope is that I will fill out that schedule with one to two pop-ups in the East Bay, because I still really want to maintain my presence over here,” she said. She lives in Oakland.

Ovinloven began as a side project when Strickler’s main gig was bartending. With verve and chutzpah, she began showing up at places and introducing herself with a slice of pie. Since last summer, Ovinloven has been a solo project and her full-time job. She now averages three to five pop-ups a week.

Generally, it takes two to three days of preparation for each one. Strickler makes both sweet and savory doughs, rolling them out by hand at her commissary kitchen on Treasure Island. “That is a many-hours-long process, and it’s very physically intense,” she said.

Strickler said that while she’s always loved to cook and bake she didn’t have professional training or experience before she started the pop-up. “When the pandemic happened, it really gave me a chance to focus in and hone my skills,” she said. “And I just love to feed people.” When Bakers Against Racism formed after George Floyd’s tragic death, she had a “light bulb” moment.

Prior to bartending, Strickler worked in the fields of reproductive justice and prison abolition. “It clicked that through baking I could start organizing community bake sales to try to educate people,” she said. Strickler made “political pies,” baking messages on top of them with phrases like “Abolish ICE” or “Community Care, Not Cages.”

Her goal is to have a brick-and-mortar. But she wants to run a bakery that’s also a gathering space for the community. “From having a community fridge to hosting events, and just being a source of physical and spiritual nourishment,” she said.    

Ovinloven also provides Strickler with an opportunity to highlight farmers’ market products. For the past couple of years she’s bought all of her stone fruit from Kashiwase Farms. “I love getting their incredible peaches, nectarines and plums,” she said. Strickler also befriended Shared Cultures’ founders Eleana Hsu and Kevin Gondo.

“It’s exciting to incorporate their products and use the different varieties they have to inspire new pies,” Stickler said. The miso from Shared Cultures amps up and lends unique flavors to her pies. One of her bestsellers is a miso, mushroom and leek pie. She uses their black garlic miso, which has an “incredible umami flavor.” Customers never believe it’s vegan.

Later this year Strickler plans to bring back a corn galette, her favorite recipe from last summer. To make it, she cooked fresh corn in Shared Cultures’ corn miso. “On top of that, I put goat cheese and then topped it all with Mama Teav’s Hot Garlic, which is another one of my favorite locally made products,” she said. The miso brought out the corn flavor “in a really beautiful way.”

Strickler enjoys experimenting with flavors. “Part of why I like pie is that I view it as this blank canvas to highlight ingredients and tell stories,” she said.

Strickler collaborated with a friend of hers who makes Pan-Asian Hawaiian food. “We incorporated li hing, which is the powder of dehydrated plums,” she said. “And it lent a really special flavor profile that was different to what I normally do, and it was an ingredient that’s really meaningful to her and her culture.”

Ovinloven’s fruit-forward pies will return this summer. “I think part of why people love my fruit pies is because I add very little sugar, really just enough for structure and to bring out the natural flavors of the fruit,” Strickler said. Before the stone-fruit pie season arrives, the pop-up will celebrate Pi Day at Bad Walters. After that, her beloved red velvet cheesecake pie will leave the menu for the foreseeable future.

Ovinloven will pop up at Bad Walter’s Bootleg Ice Cream, Saturday, March 14, 5800 College Ave., Oakland. Check IG @ovinloven for hours.

More Pie on Pi Day:

• Julie’s Coffee & Tea Garden, 1223 Park St., Alameda; juliestea.com. “Favorite holiday” features include classic and new, sweet-and-savory flavors like smores, pistachio and shepherdess pies plus vegan and gluten-free options. Pre-order deadline March 10.
• Sweet Adeline Bakeshop, 3350 Adeline St., Berkeley; sweetadelinebakeshop.com. Featuring chocolate cream, coconut cream and turtle pies, and a special Apple Marionberry Pi(e) Day.
• Starter Bakery, Oakland and Albany; starterbakery.com. Pre-order petite and whole pies for Pi(e) Day.
• Pie Dreams, 5855D Jarvis Ave., Newark; piedreamsco.com. Opened on Pi Day in 2023, this year’s Pi(e) Day details coming soon.
• Gregory’s Gourmet Desserts & Underground Bakery, 285 23rd St., Oakland; gregorysgourmetdesserts.com. Features key lime, sweet potato, chocolate pecan and lemon pies, plus many others.
• Fatapples, Berkeley and El Cerrito; fatapplesrestaurant.com. Offering apple, cherry, olallieberry and raspberry rhubarb pies and more, along with various pocket pies.
• Three Babes Bakeshop, 2797 16th St., San Francisco; threebabesbakeshop.com. Offering banana cream, pumpkin, peanut butter, blackberry crumble and many other pies, some with Pi(e) Day toppers.
• Arizmendi Bakery, 1331 9th Ave., San Francisco; arizmendibakery.com. Serving special key lime and chocolate cream pies for the holiday, with a portion of proceeds going to a science-related charity.