Thirdspace: Bang Bang Pie Shop
By Louisa ChuThirdspace: Bang Bang Pie Shop
By Louisa ChuAs turmoil swirls across our city and around the world, I have to admit that I hesitated to share my current favorite thirdspace: Bang Bang Pie Shop.
As you may know, a thirdspace (aka third place) follows home (first place) and workplace (second place) as your main social environment and community anchor.
At Bang Bang, it’s not just co-owner Megan Miller’s pie — three she changes weekly, always including a seasonal fruit, chocolate and cream-based pie — that keeps me coming back for more. (You can vote for next week’s pie, a good indicator of their community consideration.)
Nor is it just the biscuits, introduced by co-owner Michael Ciapciak, a young vet of the old Mobil Travel Guide and Danny Meyer‘s Union Square Hospitality Group. The biscuits are served with or without Smoking Goose ham, and (most importanly) access to the butter and housemade jam jars. On a recent day they held the already signature black-pepper honey butter, chive butter, cherry jam and blueberry lavender jam.
It’s not even just the coffee (hot or iced, both help-yourself, with simple syrup in an upcycled Dom Pérignon bottle) which seems to be the lifeblood of thirdspaces these days. Co-owner Dave Miller (Megan’s husband) formerly owned Ipsento and continues to roast his own beans for BB.
Nor is it even just the bacon, omnipresent these days, but here made with a candied glaze.