Meet Tonya Saidi of Mamma Toledos The Pie Hole in Moon Valley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tonya Saidi.

Tonya, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As a little girl, I loved dessert, so much that I had to have a dish of chocolate ice cream before my dinner or I wouldn’t eat any food. My mother was nice enough to accommodate that demand! So, I was always baking something from an early age. I baked my first pie in 1997 when I worked at a Residential care home for the elderly. My mother had passed away from cancer in 1995 and I took all her baking cookbooks and found a recipe for Raspberry pie and made one for the ladies I took care of. The nurse I worked with was so excited and couldn’t stop talking about how delicious this pie was and couldn’t believe I made the crust from scratch and that it was my first time. She filled me full of confidence and I started baking everyone pies for birthday dinners, potlucks and holidays. I left the healthcare field and went into Real Estate for years and decided I needed something more fulfilling as a career and a friend of mine kept trying to talk me into getting a dessert shop but I just didn’t think I would be able to pay bills selling pie. I did some research and had a little sit down with a friend of mine that owns a very successful restaurant and she suggested I keep my day job until I figured out if I had a marketable product (she loved my baking). I created a flyer to sell pies for Thanksgiving at the office I worked at and people ordered, paid, ate the pies and asked if I was going to do it for Christmas, too? This is what started the fire, I then went and registered my LLC, opened up a business bank account and started working farmers markets on the weekend while I worked my 9 to 5.

Once I started to working more on my business then where I was employed it was time to take the plunge and jump in with both feet! On June 1st of 2011, I left my office with my box and haven’t looked back. I continued farmers markets then purchased my lil Pie truck in August of 2011 and debut that baby in October at the very First Food Truck Festival in Phoenix. One year later I opened up a small storefront inside Short Leash Hot Dogs and then moved out on my own a year later. I now have a storefront in Moon Valley and continue to work the food truck at Public events as well as private parties and other events.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Owning a small business has been the hardest job I’ve ever had! The food truck business is not for wimps nor is it for anyone that likes to sleep a lot. I have busted my butt to get where I am and to keep my business running. The most challenging year was when my lil Pie Truck broke down and needed to get the engine replaced, I thought I had a mechanic that knew what he was doing and I thought he was trustworthy but I was completely wrong. A job that should have taken no more than 30 days and cost $2000.00 took 6 months and cost $18,000.00. The guys that worked on my truck were only good at taking it apart, it sat in there shop for 3 months while they took it apart. I had to pull it from them in pieces and take it to another mechanic who told me they would take care of me to only let it sit in there parking lot for 30 days before starting any work on it. They ended up finishing it but it was another 60 days to finish once they started.

It took me a year to recover from the loss of income, the tarnished reputation for not being able to follow through with booked events and the cost of the repairs from both mechanics. I managed to pull through and learned a lot during the process! I now know I can get through anything!

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Mamma Toledos The Pie Hole – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We bake sweet and savory pies. Our mini pies are very popular and that’s what we sell out on our lil Pie Truck. We make over 50 flavors of sweet pies such as Chocolate Peanut Butter, Coconut Cream, Banana Cream, Raspberry Cheesecake to name a few. Our savory pies are absolutely delicious and are very popular as well, Chicken Pot Pie, Pot Roast Pot Pie and Pork Green Chili Pot Pie. At our shop, we also have breakfast items and the best Coffee in Moon Valley. We use beans roasted by Xanadu Coffee in downtown Phoenix.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
If all goes well the rest of this year we are going to create an expansion plan. We would like to have a small storefront in the East Valley and one in the West Valley and to have one more food truck that could put out our breakfast menu and the pies.

Contact Info:

• Address: 15414 N. 7th Street Phoenix, AZ 85022
• Website: www.mammatoledos.con
• Phone: 602-332-7346
• Email: pie@mammatoledos.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mammatoledos/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MammaToledos
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mammatoledos
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mamma-toledos-the-pie-hole-phoenix-2

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