Sweet Land of Liberty

The large American flag in the window of the bakery, Sweetie Sweetie, on Braddock Avenue in Regent Square, is not unusual. Many people are showing their love of country these days. 

But step inside. For David Green, the baker-owner of Sweetie Sweetie, love of country includes dissent. To the delight of progressives, that’s the icing on the cookie.

When the winds of war began to blow in January of 2002, David began his cookie campaign. “Jackie Berberich, who makes some cakes for us, suggested we make a ‘no war’ cookie,” David recalled on a recent afternoon, as we sat, sipping coffee at a table below a bulletin board with the Pittsburghers for Peace poster and notices of upcoming concerts, plays and farmers’ markets.

“We figured there would be a response,” he said, “but we thought it would take a real ‘sick ticket’ to object to peace. This is a pretty progressive neighborhood.  One woman said ‘How can you do that?’ I replied, ‘What do you mean? It’s my right to do that.’ She said she would never come back, but I’ve seen her sneak in when I was in the back. We’ve lost a few customers, but people have come from the suburbs and all over the city especially to buy those cookies.”

There were more to come. “When Santorum began to open his mouth, about women’s rights and gay rights, I knew I had to make a ‘No to Santorum’ cookie, and that is our most popular cookie.”

“I held off on the Bush cookie, out of respect for the office, until he declared his candidacy, but he’s fair game now,” said David.

David graduated with a voice major from CMU. He spent 20 years in New York City singing, and baking as a sideline. He returned to Pittsburgh and bought an existing bakery three years ago, that he renamed Sweetie Sweetie. Now he bakes fulltime, and sings as a sideline, at the Unitarian Church in Shadyside.

It takes some starch to dissent when you are in business, and David will keep the cookies on the shelf and the flag in the window. “I love this country, and what it stands for, and I want to see our rights preserved so that everyone can enjoy the freedoms we are entitled to.” 

The shop is at 1103 S. Braddock, phone is   412-243-7730.

- Bette McDevitt


David Green (right) with volunteer Casey (left) at his store posing in front of the
political cookies. (Photo by Bette McDevitt)