Crustees, a restaurant in the South LA neighborhood of View Park-Windsor Hills, has a peach cobbler that’s not a cobbler in the strict Southern sense — it’s not topped with a biscuit or dumpling batter. Its cobblers are full of big slices of peaches that are bathed in sugar and spice and stuffed inside two layers of flaky pie crust. The fact that the namesake crust is made with vegetable shortening, not butter or lard, might surprise traditionalists — but that doesn’t faze the owners behind this intrinsically Californian bakery.

Since 2014, the shop garnered a strong reputation for its line of sweet and savory baked goods. While the business is best known for its pot pies — flaky, rich, and sized for one person to indulge maximally — no pastry lover should miss the peach cobbler. “That peach cobbler, my mother’s been making it for over 30 years. It was required at every party,” says co-owner Steven Washington. Her cobbler, it turns out, is the dish that the entire business is built upon.

Crustees first started up under a different name: Sharon’s Heavenly Cobblers. Named after Steven’s business partner and mother, the cottage food business specialized in selling fruit cobblers at local farmers markets, food festivals, and wholesale. When the Washingtons opened the store on Slauson in 2019, they changed the name “for branding purposes,” says Steven. The quick-service restaurant is small and bright with just a few tables set in front of the drinks cooler and a pie display for those dining in.

Crustees’ succinct menu spotlights single-serving pies, as well as bowls of turkey and chicken chili and gumbo, and desserts like banana pudding and pound cake. Pot pies and chili were added to the menu for the same reason Sharon started selling her cobblers to the public in the first place — people love her recipes. “They’re what my mother has been making since I’ve known,” says Steven. “They’re household favorites that everyone we know has given her flowers for.”

The shop’s three varieties of chicken pot pie (classic, curry, and Buffalo, like the chicken wing sauce) are big sellers, as are the white chicken chili and classic chili. The seafood gumbo is proving popular, too, with its shrimp and crab, plus sausage and chicken. The shepherd’s pie, made with lamb and turkey, has the traditional mashed potato top and a pie crust bottom, for a best-of-both-worlds bite. The sweet potato pie balances its warming spices and sits in the same tender, toasty crust.

The owners are good-natured but not forthcoming about their baking secrets. “Might be a little bit of technique involved,” says Steven. “It’s the Crustees way.”

The Crustees way doesn’t stop at tender, flaky pastry. The owners try to convey a sense of warmth through their cooking and community outreach. The only menu item not made in-house is the pound cake, which is baked by Catrina Smith, a South LA resident who started her own small business last year. “We wanted to give back because we started with wholesaling,” Steven says.

Smith got her start in much the same way as Sharon: baking for friends and family who encouraged her to make a business of it. “I’ve been baking these cakes just for family,” says Smith. “People told me, ‘You should sell these cakes,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, okay.’” Though she usually waved away the suggestion, Smith’s husband, Patrick Smith, turned out to be an effective hype man, as well as a loyal Crustees customer.

On one visit to the shop, Patrick talked up her desserts to Steven’s father and Sharon’s husband, Carl, who is also an owner of Crustees. “Mr. Carl said, ‘Have her give me a call.’” Catrina currently bakes three to five pound cakes a week for Crustees while she strategizes the next steps for her business.

Even with the popularity of the Slauson store, Crustees continues to sell its wares wholesale at Jim’s Fallbrook Market in Woodland Hills, Jayde’s Market in Bel Air, Handy Market in Burbank, and Bob’s Market in Santa Monica during the holidays. Crustees is also active at farmers markets, currently vending at Playa Vista, Beverly Hills, Larchmont, and Hollywood Park in Inglewood. The Washingtons keeps up with the markets so that “every part of LA can get some of Crustees,” says Steven.

While it made financial sense for Sharon to keep her day job as a legal secretary during Crustees’s start-up era, she hasn’t seen the need to step away yet, even after the business name change, menu expansion, and brick-and-mortar location. “She’s organized and disciplined,” says Steven. “She kind of thrives in this.”

In November 2023, Crustees celebrated five years in the neighborhood with a massive gathering. The celebration quickly became a block party. The Washingtons were heartened to see the community come out to celebrate their milestone.

“They’re helpful and nice and great,” says Jason Johnson, an employee at a nearby dessert joint, the Snoball Shop, of the Crustees team. But a restaurant is nothing without excellent food. “The chili pot pie is my favorite,” he says. “It tastes like homemade, like your mama made it.”

Crustees, located at 4442 W. Slauson Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90043, is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.