A palladium-catalyzed Heck reaction between 2-oxyacrylates and aryl bromides was developed, where DavePhos was a unique ligand that efficiently promoted the reaction. The products, 2-oxycinnamates, served as excellent precursors, providing synthetically useful monoaryl pyruvates or ortho ester-protected monoaryl pyruvates depending on the nature of the 2-oxy group. The formation of such ortho esters via alkoxide addition is novel, and computational studies identified a plausible mechanism with an oxyallyl zwitterion as the key intermediate.