LOGAN SQUARE — Dave Miller slept for two hours Tuesday night on the wood floor of his Logan Square store.
That wouldn't have had to happen — if Thanksgiving didn't require pie and Miller didn't own a pie shop.
But people — lots of people — demand pie on Thanksgiving. And so a sleepless night or three for Miller, his baker wife Megan and their friend Michael Ciapciak, the co-owners of Bang Bang Pie Shop, was inevitable.
The trio opened the business in late March selling pie ($5 a slice, $26 whole), biscuits and coffee. Getting through their first Thanksgiving has been a trial by fire but, said Dave Miller, "it's been pretty awesome to see the support."
Measured in pies sold this week, that support totaled about 2,000 — mostly pumpkin pie, but also bourbon-pecan, apple crumble, sweet potato and chocolate chess. (One customer showed his appreciation by bringing beer late one night while they were still working, said Megan Miller.)
"We didn't know we could possibly sell this much," Dave Miller said.
Bang Bang opens at 7 a.m. At 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, Ciapciak saw a few cars idling in front with their headlights on, waiting for the shop to open. By the time he unlocked the doors, people had lined up on the sidewalk outside.
"I've never had pies like" Megan's, said regular customer Kip Hursey, 55, of Portage Park. "There's love in there, and I like the rustic look of it." Hursey was there Wednesday to pick up a pie his friend had ordered ahead of time. He failed to pre-order his own pie.
"No favors," joked Ciapciak.
The shop started taking Thanksgiving pie orders in early October. This week, they baked about 1,000 pies to sell on a first-come, first-served basis. They posted updates on Twitter whenever a batch of pies came out of the ovens.
About those ovens: There are two. Each bakes only 10 pies at a time. They're also needed to bake biscuits and the graham crackers used in the pie crusts, and to roast the pumpkins and sweet potatoes for the pies.
"Next year, we'll probably rent a larger oven," said Dave Miller.
He said he also might set up an answering service for next time — or the next holiday — to handle the volume of phone calls, which came in steadily Wednesday.
The shop was scheduled to close at 7 p.m. Wednesday. It won't re-open until Tuesday.
"In January, we'll have plenty of time to sleep," Miller said.
