Ikeda’s was voted the No. 1 pie shop in America for 2026 by USA Today.

AUBURN, CA (MPG) - Its location along I-80 has helped make Ikeda’s a popular stopping point for motorists heading toward the Sierra Nevada or traveling down into the Central Valley. On busy travel days, cars stream off the interstate and into the market’s spacious parking lot.

But the Auburn landmark, which was voted the No. 1 pie shop in America for 2026 by USA Today, came from much humbler beginnings.

Sam Ikeda was an Auburn orchard farmer who took pride in selecting the largest, sweetest and juiciest fruit to sell. Looking for a way to sell his produce directly to customers rather than relying on a middleman, he envisioned a fruit stand where produce could travel from the orchard directly to market shelves.

In 1950, Sam and his wife, Sally, partnered with Everett Gibson and started a roadside fruit stand along old Highway 40. Gibson brought an established Bay Area customer base, while Ikeda supplied high-quality fruit.

After Gibson retired, Sam and his wife, Sally, took over and opened Ikeda’s in 1972.

Sam started with best quality peaches. High-end clientele would come from the Bay Area and fall in love with his peaches, because it was a world they never experienced before. They would come from the city and, while passing through Auburn, stop to visit Sam’s orchard, where the farmer picked fruit by hand, offering it straight from the tree.

They would then tell their friends to stop in Auburn, and that started the ball rolling. Eventually, news of the fruit pies and everything else got around via word of mouth.

Sally and Sam always wanted to provide great service, great quality products, and to make sure the store is always clean. According to them, if they could maintain those three things, then the customers are going to feel like they are buying great products.

Thirteen years after their elder son, Glen graduated from college, he joined the family business. Five years later, their second son Steve joined his brother, allowing Sam and Sally some much needed down time. 

The two sons not only maintained the store but incorporated their own ideas on expanding the business to selling pies, fresh sauces, prime-grade beef, Pacific wild-caught fish and fine wines.

Ikeda’s supplies wares from local vendors who make their own honey and hot sauces and other products. If there’s a brand that’s in demand and it’s from Oregon, New York, or somewhere else around the country, then the market will stock it. But most of the items they sell come from California.

Pies became one of the business’s biggest attractions. Glen Ikeda started the pie operation as a way to use surplus or slightly bruised fruit rather than letting it go to waste. Today, Ikeda’s sells more than 120,000 pies annually, according to information in the company history, with its bakery producing more than 20 varieties of scratch-made pies and baking as many as 1,000 in a day.

Ikeda’s is not only known for its pies, but its signature sauces, and other products provided by local vendors.

The market is currently run by Glen’s two sons, Derek and Brendyn. Glen is still a fixture at the market.

“We’re trying to get him to retire, but as a family member that basically the heart and soul. He really, really transformed this business. And him and my uncle, when they are the heart and soul of this team, and they’ve been in it for so long, they can never really retire,” said Derek, manager and part owner.

As manager and part owner, Derek has also incorporated his own ideas for the market, which includes wagyu beef, smashed burgers, key lime pies and Japanese curry potpies.

The market has changed considerably since its roadside-fruit-stand days, but its connection to California agriculture remains. Every single morning, before the sun rises, farmers hand pick apples, berries, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines and other fruit from the family orchard.

For travelers, however, Ikeda’s has become more than a place to buy fruit. It is part of the journey — a familiar place to stretch your legs, grab something to eat and pick up a pie before getting back on the highway.

Ikeda’s sells 120,000 scratch-made pies each year.

“We are known for our pies, but we’re also just a food emporium. There’s something for everybody here. We have some people come in and say, ‘We love your muffins. We love your salsas. We love your meat.’ Most of the time, they say, ‘We love your pies.’ So that makes me believe that we’re not just a singular store. We’re a food market, and there are lots of things for everybody to find,” said Derek.

In an era when interstate travel is increasingly dominated by chain restaurants and gas stations, Ikeda’s remains something different: a family roadside market that became a destination of its own.