The concept for Ellen “Elli” Kaplansky’s new business began one Thanksgiving when she decided to prepare only pies for dessert, “It was a Thanksgiving dessert spread any pilgrim could be proud of,” she said. Thus, the idea for Pie Bakery & Café was born. With the support of her husband, Ely, the idea became a reality in mid-December 2007. Pie Bakery & Café started with a love for pies and evolved into a concept feeding anyone’s desire for fresh pies—fruit, cream, savory, and hand pies. With the slogan, “There’s Always Room for Pie,” Pie Bakery & Café is the newest and most unique eatery to open in swanky Newton Center.

Making everyday pie day, Kaplansky partnered with longtime colleague Paige Retus, formerly the pastry chef at Olives Restaurant and co-author of The Olives Dessert Table. Retus serves as the business’ executive pastry chef and works with Kaplansky designing the menu. Elli hired Ryan Costigan PCP ’05 as the savory chef. With the mission to incorporate “pie” into every menu item, Elli and Paige have created conventional and unconventional pie offerings. “There is an element of pie in every item we make,” said Elli. “From the traditional sweet pies to the savory meat pies and hand pies, to the doughs used for our sandwiches and quiches, to the Shepard’s pie, empanadas, and spanikopitas. We even bake the brownies in a pie tin and cut them in wedges.”

The road to opening her second business was filled with valuable experience working with some of the city’s most respected chefs and pastry chefs. Kaplansky opened Elli’s Downstairs Café in Cambridge in the early 1990s. After operating it for five years, she sold the business and applied to the Professional Chef’s Program at The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in 1996. “I loved learning the basics, the foundation of cooking,” she said. “The program is perfect for so many people, I still recommend it.”

After graduating, Elli hoped to work for Jody Adams but instead accepted a job at Figs, working with pastry chef Heather McDonald. Three days a week she worked in the Figs commissary making pizza dough, focaccia, and Tuscan wheat bread and then worked in the restaurant making the desserts for service. Eventually, she did get her opportunity to work with Jody Adams as the opening pastry chef for Adams’ Red Clay in the Chestnut Hill Atrium. After working at Red Clay, she returned to Olives where she met Paige. She followed Retus to the Metropolitan Club in Chestnut Hill where they worked together until the launch of Pie Bakery & Café.

In a warm, inviting space in the heart of Newton Center, Pie Bakery & Café offers 24 tables and 8 seats along a dessert bar. “We really wanted to make it warm and comfortable so that our customers feel like they are guests and that they can hangout,” she said. The space offers WiFi, a sound system, and an open kitchen. “We have a flat screen TV hanging in the window with a live feed from the pastry kitchen so that people walking down the street can see what’s going on inside. It’s all very inviting and interactive,” she said.

Although the process of opening her business took nearly a year, the passion and enthusiasm for her pie concept is palpable. To put the concept in motion, she hired a business consultant whose business card she kept for 11 years. “He presented a seminar at The CSCA while I was a student. I contacted him last year and he said the same thing to me as he did to the class 11 years ago, ‘Don’t open a restaurant.’” Elli also hired an architect to help design the space. “I recommend to everyone who wants to open a business to do lots of research and talk to professionals to get legal and business advice. You need support from your family and business partners because creative passion doesn’t necessarily translate into being business-minded. Hire the right people to guide you and trust your support system without putting up the house!”

Pie Bakery & Café is located at 796 Beacon Street, Newton Center; 617-332-8743; www.piebakeryandcafe.  

caption: Paige Retus and Elli encourage everyone to save roomfor pie at Pie Bakery&Café.