Bang Bang Pie Debuts Patio

By Melissa Wiley in Food on Jun 12, 2012 6:00PM

Strap on your holster and get ready for a quick draw: Bang Bang Pie Shop is primed for a super-sweet al fresco showdown. We visited this low-key Logan Square gem last Friday, when the staff was busy prepping for Saturday’s soft opening for its new outdoor space, where guests can picnic with primo pie like your grandmother’s grandmother used to make and take in a silent film under the fragrant bowers of a plum or peach tree. Yes, nothing less arboreal than a fully fledged mini-orchard is in the Bang Bang works, providing dappled shade as well as fresh supplies for the shop’s fruitier concoctions. And forget The Artist. This is by far your tastiest opportunity to view original Charlie Chaplin classics under the stars as you savor some of the very best pie this city has to offer.

While in the shop, we sampled a slice of strawberry and peach, the latter suffused with whiskey for a sultry speakeasy flavor, and a serving of the dark chocolate s’more as well, just because we’re gluttons like that. Having finished off our midday meal only an hour prior, we had every intention—honest, we swear—of relishing just a few bites and wrapping up the rest for our loved ones. In the end, however, it was our own decadent sweet tooth that received the most love. Like so many other pampered sorts, this particular tooth doesn’t abide being rushed. So we lingered over our crumb-speckled plates and graciously acquiesced when the shop’s owner offered us some candied bacon, prolonging our iced tea sipping and cottony cloud gazing and generally making the entire afternoon into a leisure love fest.

It’s very likely we really did pinch ourselves when we bit into the peach pie’s impossibly buttery graham cracker crust, if only because we like giving ballast to these sorts of 1950s expressions. Plus, even mama’s mama’s mama’s mama couldn’t quite pull that one off. If we’re talking metaphorical cherries on top, and we are, the only thing else we could ask for would be the chance to take our plates outside into the soft summer breeze, perhaps atop a newly varnished picnic table while watching something black and white. Fortunately we’re in luck—and have yet one more reason to return.

Bang Bang Pie Shop is located at 2051 N. California Avenue.