The peachy new pie-making family bakery that's opened in bustling Edinburgh locale

There’s a new addition to this street

There’s currently a comfortingly sweet smell that’s wafting along Easter Road.

The source is a new cafe and bakery, The Lea Rig, which has opened in the prominent Victorian corner property that was formerly occupied by Food Story.

The current occupant has added a salmon-hued interior decor, and is baking up a storm, with creations that are inspired by the Ukrainian background of head baker and co-owner Olga Loza and the US origins of her life and business partner, Sam Harvey. We’re talking peach pie, pecan brownies, and cinnamon rolls that have been lavishly clarted in cream cheese icing.

“We will have a couple different pies all the time. We'll start with a peach, and a chestnut custard pie, and then lots of turnovers. I’ll have a savoury and a sweet version, and some vegan stuff,” says Loza. “One of the girls who's going to be working here is vegan. She's our coffee lead, so I think it's been important for us to accommodate that too. And I think Easter Road has lots of people and students, and there's all sorts of dietary requirements involved, so it's been nice to think about that. I really like making muffins too.”

When the invasion happened in her homeland of Ukraine, Loza baked traditional honey cakes and sold them in popular Edinburgh cafes and shops like Little Fitzroy and Weigh to Go, to raise funds for charities in the stricken country.

“It's been such a nice way to feel I was doing something, because it’s really hard,” Loza says.

She’s hoping these treats will appear on The Lea Rig’s menu eventually, hopefully using produce from The Edinburgh Honey Co, which is another Easter Road neighbour.

The cafe will also offer a casual breakfast, with offerings including French toast with maple syrup and berries from Phantassie Organics, and a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit (that’s the US version of a scone), plus a lunch of daily special focaccia sandwiches or a classic Reuben.

“We're starting with sandwiches, then hopefully, once the staffing works itself out, we'll do one hot dish every day, which will be between £8 and £10,” says Loza. “We'll change every couple of weeks, and it would be something like polenta with braised pork or a hearty and delicious vegan option.”

The bakes are served on checkered paper, to match the casual family diner feel that they’re going for in this dog and child-friendly space.

“Sam is American and we’ve been visiting his family a lot, and I just love the diner culture,” Loza says. “I think generally, the American baking tradition is really interesting.”

Despite this, they’ve gone for an extremely Scottish name.

“It’s a nice connection to Scotland. The lea rig refers to the bit of land between fields that farmers would live on - one of the fields in rotation in the old runrig system”, says Loza, who shares that eventually they’d like to have some live traditional music playing, maybe every month or so.

This is the young couple’s first venture together. They originally met as students at University of St Andrews, then had a baby in 2024. It was around this time that Loza decided to change her career path.

“I just didn't want to stay in academia. I didn't like how it made me feel. It didn't seem like a good fit,” she says. “Also, with having a kid, I just thought I'd much rather be happy around him. I had been baking all through my masters and PhD, and had barista roles too. And I've always really liked cooking and baking, so I just started looking. Max was maybe like three months old. I was really lucky. Our friend Lucy, who runs Weigh to Go, told me that Williams & Johnson were looking for a baker. I met them and they said, ‘You can start next week’. ” I was like, ‘Wow, that's amazing’. So I started in January 2025.”

The job was a steep learning curve for Loza, but she was allowed to experiment, and she quickly moved up the ranks in the cafe and roastery, which is part of Leith’s Custom Lane.

Then the couple decided that they wanted to do their own thing. That’s despite the fact that Loza briefly thought about taking up a baking role at the gorgeous Aran in Dunkeld, before deciding to return to the city.

“We came back, and somebody got in contact with us about Food Story before it was on the market. We live a block away. It was perfect,” Loza says.

The couple have thrown themselves into the project, after giving themselves just a couple of months to open.

“I was doing joinery stuff, and Olga was working in the kitchen, and I would be in the middle of plastering a wall, and I'd have to go to the bathroom to talk to the solicitor, and it was three or four months of back and forth,” says Harvey, whose dad came over from the US to build the seating, tables and counter. They also had to put a whole new kitchen in.

While doing the renovations, down in the basement they found the old sign for the Chinese restaurant, Skyway, which was a long-term former resident of this spot.

It took a bit longer to get their own name up, as the building’s fascia wasn’t in a great state. However, now that the final flourish is in place, it’s getting very busy.

As Loza says; “I think Easter Road has a strong identity and people like local businesses. It’s super supportive.”

And us Leithers really love pie.

The Lea Rig Cafe & Bakery is at 127 Easter Road, Edinburgh, follow them on Instagram at @thelearigbakes