Tiny pies from Eli’s a yummy treat for ‘Waitress’ audiences

If you’ve attended a Chicago performance of the stage musical “Waitress” (playing through July 22 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre), you know there’s a very special treat that awaits at intermission. And if you’ve got tickets for an upcoming show, you might want to pack an extra $6.

That’s what it will cost to buy specially packaged “mini pies” available at lobby concession areas. Created by Eli’s Cheesecake, the two tiny pies — one blueberry and one strawberry — might just be the sweet treat you’re jonesing for after all that butter, flour, sugar talk courtesy of the Tony Award-winning musical. The show is set in a Southern pie diner, with a main character who uses her pie-baking skills to cope with life. (In New York, the pies are served in a jar and the scent of freshly baked pies is sent wafting through the house courtesy of a fresh pie baking in a convection oven).

Enter Eli’s Cheesecake. Already contracted to create mini pies (cherry and apple) for “Hamilton” up the street at the CIBC Theatre, the beloved cheesecake purveyors were tapped to work their bakery magic for “Waitress.”

“We went with two really good flavors, blueberry and strawberry and people have really responded well to them,” said Eli’s executive pastry chef Laurel Boger. The first run of 2,000 pies for the show’s three-week run quickly sold out, so 2,000 more are being baked for the remainder of the run.

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The tiny pies, just about two-and-one-half inches in diameter, are made the same way as their lifesized counterparts. The dough is a made in-house patee sucre, rolled out and cut to size, filled with fresh fruit mixtures, topped off, crimped, and sugar-sprinkled (for some “added bling,” Bolger said).

“Who doesn’t love pie?” said Bolger. “And the best way to serve a fruit pie is at room temperature. So never refrigerate them.”

For tickets to “Waitress,” visit broadwayinchicago.com.