Philly’s first ever pie picnic took over the Boathouse at FDR Park

Six minutes past noon on Sunday, Katrina Tran walked into the Boathouse at FDR Park with a salted caramel apple cheesecake pie in hand, heading straight to the long table featuring a smorgasbord of pies.

By 12:51 p.m., the 27-year-old home baker was eating slices of lemon, coconut maple pumpkin, Boston cream, and Nutella pumpkin pies out of a paper takeout box next to the water as a live musician sang “July” by Noah Cyrus.

Over 70 pies lined tablecloth-covered folding tables at the Boathouse inside the South Philly park on Nov. 2 for Philly’s inaugural pie picnic, organized by Wilmington resident Sophie Rust.

There was only one rule at this free event: Bring a pie, homemade or store-bought, to enter.

Rust is an event planner for a Delaware law firm, and the pie picnic is her first Philadelphia event. She was inspired by the popular West Coast cake picnics organized by Elisa Sunga, a Google designer who built a side hustle hosting a touring and ticketed picnic.

For Rust, pie — not cake — is the way to bring Philadelphians together.

“I really want the event to be about getting to know your neighbors and sitting at a table with people you typically wouldn’t,” she said. “I thought pie would be the perfect medium for this because it’s something you usually would make at home and share with people that are close to you — it’s more inclusive and accessible.”

The pie picnic at FDR Park was originally set for Oct. 12, but a turn in the weather led to the rescheduled date. When Rust reached out to FDR Park for the event, the park staff loved the idea and offered to cover the $160 permit to rent the Boathouse space, she said.

With the fall foliage on display, over 50 people filled the event space with plates piled high with pies.

Nikita Bharati thought there might be a smaller crowd due to the rescheduling, but was happy to see the pie lovers take over the Boathouse.

“It was amazing to see all the people trickle in and see all the pies fill up the tables,” said the 21-year-old, holding her box of milk bar and tomato pies, along with a slice of her Nutella pumpkin pie.

For Rust: “A pie is anything that has a crust and is slice-able or sharable. I wanted to keep it as open-ended as possible, so that there’s a lot of adaptations you can take on that.” And Philadelphians did just that, bringing their pie interpretations to the event, from sweet potato to tomato to vinegar pies.

Sydney Tan had never made a pie before, but she decided there was no better place to share her creations than a pie picnic at FDR Park.

Her vinegar pie, made with “a little bit of vinegar, but a lot of sugar, and eggs to help it set,” was inspired by her mother’s hometown in Lubbock, Texas.

“It’s at every single restaurant that you go to there, so it’s a classic for me,” she said. “I figured it would be unusual to bring and I thought no one has tried it so why not [bring it].”

Middle school best friends Olivia Walker and Emma Adelman filled their plates — the picnic provided plates, utensils, and takeout boxes — with shepherd’s, butter chicken, onion, apple, and vinegar pies. Both Walker’s lemon custard pie and Adelman’s milk bar pie were devoured by the end of the event.

“I thought that it would bring out people who are into quirky pies and who are into food so I was excited to see the creativity — and Philly showed up," Adelman said.