Milwaukee’s pie trail: Where to indulge on National Pi Day
March 14 is Pi Day — an annual celebration rooted in a riff on the mathematical π, which translates to 3.14, as these are its first three numerals. Credit for this commemoration each March goes to the late Larry Shaw, who founded Pi Day in 1988 while working as a physicist at the Exploratorium, a science museum in San Francisco.
This is obviously a brilliant excuse to stick a fork into a slice of pie, whether it’s fruit-filled or topped with cream. But what if you missed the deadline to order a whole pie through your favorite local bakery or you only want a slice on demand? Here’s a sampling of where to go in Milwaukee for a slice of pie and some of the decadent flavors you can find at each place.
Honeypie Café
This Bay View restaurant is so legendary for its pies they often host baking classes so you can replicate the goodness (or at least come very close) at home.
Drop by the new location on KK — just a few blocks north of the old one, where Honeypie Café started in 2009 — and choose from pies of the day that range from specialty offerings like Blueberry Lemonade or Salted Honey Pie to standard fruit or cream pie flavors, like Door County Cherry or Banana Cream.
Just don’t wait until too late in the day for your visit because the pies are a major draw for diners and even those who pop in just for a slice, causing your choices to dwindle.
Blue’s Egg
You may know this West Side restaurant as a killer brunch and breakfast spot serving its famous stuffed hash browns and monkey bread, but you can also order a slice of pie to cap off your meal.
Flavors change often, which is part of the fun, but a recent flavor promoted on the restaurant’s social media was Black Bottom Coconut Cream, which is a layer of chocolate ganache on the bottom topped with coconut custard and snowflake coconut and then the obligatory whipping cream along with coconut streusel. And earlier this week, the choices were French silk, Irish cream, apple pie, and coconut cream.
The Bake Sale
Open since 2021 in West Allis, this bakery is unusual in that it features a lot of pie varieties: fruit-filled mini pies and hand pies, especially. For March, one of the specials is a Whiskey Cherry Peach Pie (hand pie), which has whiskey-soaked cherries folded in and is topped with brown-butter streusel.
Keep an eye on the bakery’s Instagram page for mouth-watering glimpses at what’s coming out of the ovens.
Mr. Dye’s Pies
If you’re a true fan of fruit pies and pies that will make you weep with nostalgia, this is your utopia. You’ll find Mr. Dye’s Pies is tucked into 3rd Market Hall, a food hall with various vendors in downtown Milwaukee since January of 2023.
By selling his pies at farmers markets over the past few years, Dye was able to build a loyal following. Now, with a permanent location access to those pies is available every day except for Sunday.
News of the latest flavors and the latest creative work of owner Johnathan Dye is often announced on the business’ Facebook page. You might find blueberry, key lime, pecan, purple monster (a sweet potato pie made with Okinawan purple yam), and peanut butter, for example, which are five of their popular flavors.
Beans & Barley
In business since 1973, this farm-to-table café attached to a boutique health-foods grocery store on the East Side sells slices of pie to enjoy in the café with coffee and espresso drinks, or as a sweet ending to breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The deli also sells slices of pie to-go.
Pie options include apple, key lime, banana cream, chocolate cream, Boston cream, mixed berry, and cherry. The bakery commits to having a few vegan and gluten-free pies in rotation as well.
Comet Café
After a brief closure, this East Side staple of a diner is back open. It sources pies from Honeypie Café and puts a variety of delicious slices on its all-day menu.
While flavors change daily, there’s always a fruit pie and a cream pie selection. We can’t think of anything better than pairing a slice of pie with weekday breakfast and weekend brunch (served until 3 p.m., and heavy on gluten-free and meatless options like a tofu scramble alongside “bacon cakes,” which are pancakes griddled with chopped bacon).
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