Joyce Hsieh, a Le Cordon Bleu graduate and Milo and Olive alum, is behind the new Pinecone Bakeshop and Cafe, a fruit tart–focused bakery in Alhambra. At Pinecone, Hsieh serves fruit tarts crowned with peak season produce sourced from local farms, including
Harry’s Berries and Wong Farms, all nestled onto a crust that uses Tehachapi Sonora wheat.
Hsieh moved to the U.S. from Taiwan in 2014 with plans to attend culinary school and then open a cafe. “I found my passion for baking when I was in college, working at a cafe and just bugging and stalking my pastry chef there until she took me in as an apprentice,” she says. After graduating from Pasadena’s Le Cordon Bleu, Hsieh took a job as a pastry cook at Milo and Olive, eventually working her way up to becoming the restaurant’s bakery sous chef. As part of her role, she oversaw the bakery operations at Milo and Olive, which also acts as a supplier for the rest of the Rustic Canyon family of restaurants. “I was going full force and trying to make my family proud,” Hsieh says. “Really burning all the candles on all ends and just eventually burned out in the industry.”
As Hsieh contemplated whether she needed to permanently step g away from the hospitality industry, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing restaurants to close and furloughing numerous workers. In the meantime, she began working a remote job in real estate that hewed closer to a traditional nine-to-five; quickly, Hsieh realized it was not a fit for her. Living with her in-laws at the time, she began baking at home and launched a micro-bakery called the Hangry Bakery. As she tried to figure out what her specialty might be, she thought back to the first pastry she learned to make — the fruit tart. “Milo and Olive really gave me the chance to get exposed to the awesome produce and the farmers and the things that we have here in abundance in Southern California,” Hsieh says. “Fruit tarts are a perfect vehicle and canvas for me to showcase that.”
As the Hangry Bakery grew, Hsieh began providing fruit tarts to Yang’s Kitchen on Friday through Sunday during brunch service. In Alhambra, among a population of first- and second-generation Asian immigrants, she felt she had finally found community. “By then it was almost 10 years of living in LA,” Hsieh says. “That was the first time I really found a place that I feel like I belong.”
When the space next door to Yang’s opened up, Hsieh jumped at the chance to finally open the bakery she had been dreaming up. The build took almost three years before Pinecone opened on July 18, 2026.
On the opening menu, find a mixed berry tart piled with Harry’s Berries Gaviota strawberries, assorted berries from J.G. Berries, and vanilla creme patisserie. A banana miso caramel tart stacks bananas, miso caramel, and cinnamon onto creme fraiche chantilly, while a matcha strawberry tart pairs Harry’s Berries strawberries with matcha creme patisserie. A peach Earl Grey tart gets built around Earl Grey creme patisserie along with Reiger Family Farms peaches, and a mango sticky rice tart arrives with Wong Farms mangoes and Koda Farms sticky rice pudding with coconut milk. All the crusts are made with Tehachapi Sonoran wheat, which is naturally drought-tolerant and native to the area. “I am really passionate about heritage grain because I think it’s just freaking awesome,” Hsieh says. “I feel like we should be using more whole grain in our pastries because, first of all, it’s more nutritious. Second, it’s overall just better flavor as well.” Hsieh isn’t a fan of nappage, the gel often found on fruit tarts, and won’t serve it at Pinecone. The gel is often used to allow fruit tarts to stay fresh overnight without the crust getting soggy, but Pinecone will prepare all of its tarts fresh each morning.
Hsieh sees her use of locally grown in-season fruits and heritage grains as a way to be better connected to the land and make the most of Los Angeles’s exceptional growing climate. “Wednesday mornings are my favorite day of the week that I get to go see people at the farmers market, the farmers, and hearing about their struggles,” she says. “It’ll be like, ‘Oh, we just had a very dry weekend or had a very windy weekend, and this is what happened.’” She hopes that guests who come into the shop will try the tarts, then go back to the farmers market and explore more varieties of the fruits they had for themselves, as well as get to know the farmers.
Along with fruit tarts, Pinecone also serves espresso drinks, drip coffee, matcha, and hojicha. Signature drinks include a vanilla latte; the Shady Monkey with matcha and banana oat milk; and the Bubbly Bonny with Weiser Farms melons, Thai basil, and sparkling water.
Pinecone is named in part after Hsieh’s grandfather, whose Mandarin name contains “pine.” Her grandfather died right before the onset of the pandemic, which made her re-evaluate her work and how she was not putting her own well-being first. “I missed the chance to spend the last moment with my grandpa when he was really ill in the hospital,” Hsieh says. “And that shook me a lot because I was like, ‘What am I doing with my life?’”
Hsieh sees Pinecone’s opening as a choice to pursue her passion again without letting go of what she cares about, including her family and ethical business practices. “I think Pinecone is just that constant reminder for me of what I will never lose sight of again,” she says. “And it’s also an homage to my grandpa that I’m here, doing it.”
