Captain Dapper Loves Logan Square's Bang Bang Pie Shop

I have distinct memories of watching my grandmother roll pie crusts and biscuits on her flour dusted kitchen table. I would try to sneak little bites of raw dough, but she'd slap my hand away. If there was any leftover dough, my grandma would make little cinnamon rolls for me. To say I have a weakness for biscuits and pie would be an understatement. No food brings back childhood memories quite like baked goods - especially pies and biscuits. So when I learned that there's an entire cafe devoted to pie and biscuits, I knew I had to experience it.

Sitting on a stretch of California Avenue between Armitage and Milwaukee, Bang Bang Pie Shop is housed in a tiny little wedge shaped storefront. (Doesn't it seem totally fitting that a pie shop should be wedge shaped? I wonder if that was intentional?) From a tiny little kitchen lined with subway tile, the folks at Bang Bang serve up a menu devoted solely to pie and biscuits. If that seems limited, think again. You can dress up your biscuit with butter and jam, butternut strata or, of course, gravy. (I chose the latter. You can take the Captain out of Southern Indiana but you can't take the Southern Indiana out of the Captain.) Bang Bang also serves up breakfast biscuits that are dressed up with meat and eggs, as well as dinner biscuits, with the likes of bacon, collards, pow pow sauce and poached eggs.

The biscuit with gravy and egg was delicious. I inhaled every crumble out of my little white bowl while grooving to 1960's soul tunes. While the dining room is small, with three 4-top tables and two 2-tops, it's a very congenial atmosphere. Outfitted with vintage table, colorful red chairs and worn wood floors, it's a comfortable little space that makes you want to dig in and order biscuit after biscuit. While the weather is still mild, there's also an outdoor seating area that's outfitted with heat lamps and picnic tables.

I think the sign posted in the kitchen of Bang Bang Pie Shop says it all. "Before machines took over," it says, "pie shells were made by hand with lard and love and people were happy." True that!

More about Bang Bang Pie Shop from around the web:

• Bang Bang Pie Shop Serving Brunch and Lunch; Dinner Coming Soon via Eater
• Bang Bang Pie Shop on Metromix
• Bang Bang Pie Shop Announces Apple Pie Contest via Chicagoist

Check out the cafe for yourself - they're open seven days a week - or contact them to order your holiday pies.

Bang Bang Pie Shop
2051 North California
Chicago 60647
773.276.8888

Images: Jason Loper