Key lime, triple berry,
and chocolate graham cracker are just some
of the hundreds of flavors made from scratch
at Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits in Chicago.
Customer: I've heard they're some of the best
pies in Chicago.
Customer: I don't think it gets any better than
biscuits and pie.
Narrator: Bang Bang Pie has been serving comfort food
to the Logan Square neighborhood for eight years
and has gained a local reputation for its delicious food
and warm hospitality.
Even during the pandemic,
it often has a line stretching around the block.
Customer: I actually just moved into the area.
This is one of the first places that I went to,
'cause it is adorable,
and also I just tried the pie once,
and it was delicious.
Michael Ciapciak: Having a focus on pie and biscuits,
it's kind of like guests come here happy.
Narrator: The starting point of Bang Bang's famous pies
is the crust.
Chelsea Gerdeman: The crust should contribute something.
It's gotta be the perfect balance of flaky and tender.
You can actually see the pieces of butter in here.
And when that bakes, the butter is gonna melt,
and the steam that comes out of it
is gonna give it a little rise,
and that's gonna be a flake.
You want it sitting, like, right on the lip of the tin
so it doesn't fall over or shrink in when it bakes.
So, you wanna just be as gentle as you can
so it doesn't get stretched out at all.
Narrator: Besides its carefully constructed
pastry crust, Bang Bang is best known
for its graham cracker crust.
Customer: Their graham cracker crust is amazing.
I usually prefer pastry, but I prefer their graham cracker.
Chelsea: We make our own graham crackers in-house.
We just add enough butter
that you can get it to stick together.
You just want a clump like that.
We use a lot of cinnamon in ours,
so it has, like, a really distinct smell and taste.
Narrator: One of these bowls makes about 24 pie crusts.
In total, Bang Bang makes
a couple of hundred crusts each week.
Michael: It's extraordinarily laborious to do what we do,
but I do think it makes a difference.
By the time you get it, it's been baked three times.
It's gonna have a more complex caramelized nature.
That's what makes ours really shine.
Narrator: Bang Bang rotates its pies every week
and is constantly trying new flavors,
like root beer float and s'more.
But a couple of fan favorites always stick around.
Michael: Key lime pie would be considered our classic.
That has not left the menu in probably eight years.
We always do a chocolate pie, a fruit pie always,
and then either a custard or a wildcard.
Customer: I've never tried the summer pie before.
That's what I got today.
It sounds really good.
Their key lime is the best key lime ever.
Chelsea: It's a really simple recipe, actually,
but it's one of our most popular.
It is just sweetened condensed milk,
egg yolks, key lime juice, and lime zest.
And that's it.
Customer: Key lime's my favorite pie in general,
and theirs is delicious.
Michael: What really makes it shine is the contrast
of the sweet, the tart, the perfect balance,
coupled with that house-made graham cracker crust.
Narrator: Another customer favorite is chocolate caramel,
which Michael describes as a light but rich
brownie filling in a chocolate cookie crust.
Michael: That's kind of like a layup.
You know, it pleases everyone.
Narrator: But for some people,
pie really means fruit pie.
Chelsea: Something about fruit pies,
I love both making and eating.
There's, like, really no room to hide
when the flavor profile is fruit.
Michael: Buying good berries in season is half the battle.
We primarily partner with Mick Klug Family Farm
in St. Joseph, Michigan, about 60 miles away.
It's important, you know,
primarily to support Midwestern farmers,
but also because the product tastes better.
It is really fun when you get a delivery from Klug
that, like, they drop them off
and you pop a blackberry or a strawberry, and it's,
like, the best blackberry or strawberry you've ever had.
Well, right then and there, we have to do
very little to continue on that flavor.
Chelsea: I think it's just, like, a good Midwestern dessert.
There's nothing overly pretentious about pie.
It just, like, is very up-front about what it is.
It's delicious.
Customer: I think pie just tastes like home.
The food's delicious,
but every time we go there it just
feels kind of like an extension of our home.
Chelsea: I grew up making pies.
So I've been, like, indoctrinated my entire life.
I was considering what I wanted to do with my life
and getting really stressed out
and stress baking about it.
And then I realized I could get paid to bake
and I wouldn't be stressed out all the time.
So I got a job at a pie shop in Atlanta,
and I have not looked back.
Narrator: We asked Michael to try some of
Bang Bang's current pie selections
and tell us which is his current favorite.
Michael: So, this is our key lime pie.
I haven't had it in a while,
but it's as good as I remember.
Perfect balance of sweet, tart, acidic, creamy.
This is another one of our classics.
It's chocolate chess.
It's the darkest, richest, lightest chocolate brownie
you could ever imagine topped with the salted caramel.
This one is in a chocolate cookie crust.
Totally different than the key lime.
It is really good.
This is triple berry.
It's in our house pastry crust,
which is an all-butter crust.
Crumble top, we call it lemon sparkle.
It has a little bit of lemon zest in there.
Just really highlights the fruit flavors.
Take a big bite.
The combination of berries,
I prefer than an all-fruit pie.
Gives different complexities,
but you still can taste each individual fruit.
That particular bite had some really tart components
of the red raspberry kind of, like, wrapped around
a fresh blueberry that popped in my mouth.
And then the bottom still has a really beautiful crispness.
Narrator: And finally, coconut passion fruit.
Michael: So, again, this is the fourth different crust
that we've experienced today.
We had the graham cracker, we had the chocolate cookie,
we had the pastry crust, and this is the toasted coconut.
Hit it with a little whipped cream,
more toasted coconut on top,
and then, just for a little glam
and kind of summer pizazz,
we put a passion fruit curd.
It's a classic coconut with a twist.
It's perfect for summertime days.
The passion fruit comes through very, very well.
And, again, it takes that kind of, like,
classic coconut cream and really elevates it.
If you're forcing me to choose a favorite at this moment,
I would have to skew towards the chocolate caramel.
It's moist on the inside, the texture's exquisite.
But that's what's so great. You know,
I mean, they all balance off each other.
There's a time and a place for each one.
Narrator: But food isn't the only thing
that keeps people coming back to Bang Bang.
Over the years, Michael has put just as much focus
on hospitality.
Customer: I come back because it's always creative menu
and the people are so wonderful.
Michael: My background is on a fine-dining level.
I always thought that to have a career
in the restaurant industry, you kind of needed
to be the best of the best.
And at that time in my life, that was, you know,
considered working at Gramercy Tavern in New York City.
But as I traveled and saw spaces
that I would seek out in cities,
I realized that I really wanted to
have more of a neighborhood place.
I'd rather see people, you know, multiple days a week
than just once a year for a special occasion.
Customer: Everyone that works here is amazing,
and they're super nice and accommodating.
Customer: Michael, the owner, is amazing.
He's one of the friendliest people we know.
Michael: My customers and friends
express surprise when they see
myself working the register or, like, busing tables.
"Why are you doing that? Is someone, you know, out sick?"
Or things like that. But to me,
that's, like, why I got in the business,
is to take care of people.
And no matter how busy we are,
I don't want to lose that aspect of it.