Beard-Finalist Pastry Chef Partners With Bang Bang Pie Owner on Ice Cream Shop

CORRECTION: A previous version of the story inaccurately described Pretty Cool Ice Cream’s partnership. The ice cream shop is Dana Cree’s company. She has spent 18 years in the dessert business, and Michael Ciapciak of Bang Bang Pie Shop is a partner. A revised story follows.

Dana Cree, the Beard-nominated pastry chef from the Publican restaurants, has written about ice cream and created her own ice cream line. Now she’s set to partner with Bang Bang Pie Shop’s owner to open an ice cream shop in Logan Square. It will be called Pretty Cool Ice Cream and may feature some of the recipes from Cree’s cookbook, Hello, My Name Is Ice Cream: The Art and Science of the Scoop. The Tribune, which broke the story, didn’t share an opening date, but the shop is planned for 2353 N. California Avenue.

Cree will leave her job at One Off Hospitality Group in March. She served as pastry chef for the company’s four Publican restaurants, as well as Dove’s Luncheonette in Wicker Park. This will be the second time Cree has left the company. She left Blackbird and Avec in 2015 to work on her own line of ice creams with 1871 Dairy. She returned in 2016 to her current post. Cree is a two-time finalist for the James Beard Award for best pastry chef. She also graduated Penn State University’s Ice Cream Short Course. The annual seven-day course is known as Ice Cream College.

Bang Bang has two locations, the original in Logan Square opened in 2012. The second opened in 2016 in Ravenswood. The crowds line up for weekend brunch for both savory and sweet options. Bang Bang owner Michael Ciapciak and Cree have talked about how well ice cream and pie pair together, and partnering made sense. This isn’t just a spin-off of the Bang Bang name, but a new shop led by Cree.