WORK • Tuesday Routine
SARAH SANNEH • founder, Pies 'n' Thighs • co-founder, Heap's Ice Cream
Neighborhood you work in: Williamsburg
Neighborhood you live in: Lower East Side
It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I drive my kids to school on weekdays, so I spend mornings in the car. I'm bad at calendaring, so I have the kids read my schedule aloud while we listen to Ebro or WFAN. I love La Bicyclette bakery in Williamsburg, so I sometimes stop for a baguette on my way to Pies ‘n’ Thighs, because they close before I leave in the afternoon. It's a phenomenal $2 baguette and often arrives home half-eaten. I get to Pies around 9a, and Jason, our dream of a director of operations, usually beats me to the shop, and has coffee ready. I try our donuts and a piece or two of our cinnamon bun, talk about Nayib Bukele with our Salvadoran baker, and go over the pastry prep list with the other bakers.
What’s on the agenda for today?
We make the ice cream cakes and ice cream sandwiches for our sister shop Heaps Ice Cream at Pies ’n’ Thighs. On Tuesdays we form the ice cream into sheets and rounds so they're ready to assemble on Wednesday. Right now, we’re working on a collaboration with Win Son Bakery to celebrate the start of summer. It’s an ice cream sandwich with sesame tahini cookie and mango sticky rice ice cream.
Raising boys through toddlerhood has prepared me to work with ice cream. It needs a schedule and lots of rest, and if you try to rush it, it melts down and can't be brought back. It's not irrational, it's just particular.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
I have a group of friends from my kids' school that I go out with pretty frequently. We're going to NY Kimchi this week because I love Golden Diner and Korean barbecue; I'm the reservationist this time, so I'm dragging everyone to Midtown. They'll be mad until we get there.
How about a little leisure or culture this week?
My kids play basketball with Steady Buckets, so a lot of my weekend time is spent in subterranean school gyms. Sometimes I get my husband to bring me to a country music concert. And our friend Will Welch recently launched a new party at Nublu, just down the street. We also head up to our house Upstate to hike, play tennis, and pull weeds, while drinking some of my sister’s wine.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
This wonderful Japanese toaster that steams bread from the inside while it crisps the outside. I love pouring the little thimble of water in each time. It’s especially useful for bringing day-old biscuits back to life.
What NYC store or service do you always recommend?
Elbow Bakery: an impossibly fluffy chicken-schmaltz roll — I can’t figure out how they do it.
The back room at 10 Ft. Single by Stella Dallas: the best vintage shop in Brooklyn.
Borgo: the tableside martini, true luxury.
Karine Kazarian: come for the facial, stay to hear Karine’s inspirational life story while she freezes dead skin from your face.
Alex Rose: I do this workout every other day and it never gets easier.
Tashkent Supermarket: happiness is shrimp and broccoli from the hot bar.
Top Hat: full of beautiful French things that you don’t need but must have.
Bolla Market: I recommend both the Tim Horton’s coffee (with a pump of vanilla) and the “regular” gasoline.
The Long Island Bar: get the Dolores del Rio cocktail.
Bread and Salt: a prosciutto sandwich that’s more than worth the drive to Jersey City.
Where are you donating your time or money?
I’ve worked with Cookies for Kids Cancer for over 10 years. They’re a fundraising powerhouse that supports peer-reviewed, cutting-edge clinical and translational pediatric cancer research. Cookies for Kids has funded more than 140 research grants through bake sales and culinary-based events, in honor of the founder Gretchen Witt’s son Liam’s love of baking. Pies 'n' Thighs has been honored to donate thousands of cookies over the past decade to support Cookies’ fundraising.