14 local bakeries to get a good holiday pie in Wisconsin

There’s a few essentials that should be included in every Thanksgiving meal: turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and of course, pie. The beloved dessert, which can be made with an abundance of different fillings, is a holiday staple, but it can also be pretty time consuming to make on your own. 

Instead of spending your entire holiday preparing dessert, pick up a pie at a local bakery. Bakeries and restaurants throughout the state sell whole pies that are available for pre-order before the holiday. You can find traditional apple and pumpkin pies or go for an unusual flavor that will make your Thanksgiving meal really stand out.

Whether you’re picking up a pie for Thanksgiving (don’t forget to submit your pre-order), or you want to make a neighbor or friend’s day by surprising them with some dessert, here are some of the best local bakeries throughout the Badger State that make unbeatable pies.

Milwaukee + suburbs

Honeypie Cafe

2569 South Kinnickinnic Ave., Milwaukee

Photo courtesy of Honeypie Cafe via Facebook

Since its opening in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood in 2009, Honeypie Cafe has been one of the city’s most popular breakfast, dinner, and brunch destinations. While it has a full menu, Honeypie Cafe might be best known for its pie. The restaurant and bakery even offers pie making classes, teaching attendees how to replicate some of Honeypie’s most-loved desserts in their own homes.

Customers can order pies year round through Honeypie Cafe’s website, and can also place pre-orders for seasonally flavored Thanksgiving pies, with pick-up at Honeypie’s sister location, Palomino until Nov. 22. Customers can choose between six different flavors for the cafe’s 11-inch Thanksgiving pies, which cost between $41-$49, with two vegan options.

All In Favor, Say Pie

502 Mandan Drive, Waukesha

As its name suggests, All In Favor, Say Pie, specializes in whipping up all sorts of pies, including a Dutch apple pie and apple cranberry pie. Unfortunately, the deadline for Thanksgiving orders passed on Nov. 16, but the Waukesha bakery sells custom-baked pies throughout the year, with in-season ingredients, and a crust that owner Jenny Danks takes immense pride in. Each of the bakery’s pies can also be made gluten-free. 

Mama Ducky’s Desserts

290 West Main St., Waukesha

Mama Ducky’s Desserts in Waukesha isn’t named for duck-themed desserts or any savory pastries made with duck. Instead, it’s named for the rubber ducks that are the favorite toy of owner Melissa’s Lugo. The name reminds Lugo that she’s working to provide for her family. She is also working to accomplish her own dreams, as one of the baker’s earliest memories is wanting to bake lemon bars featured in a children’s cookbook. Mama Ducky’s Desserts serves up far more than just lemon bars, though, including a wide array of cream and fruit pies.

Mama Ducky’s is recommending that customers pre-order their Thanksgiving pies before the bakery sells out, as it’s only making a limited amount of pie. The bakery has six flavors for sale: apple, caramel apple, chocolate cream, pecan, pumpkin, and sweet potato. Each pie costs $20 or two for $35.

Hatched

655 North Brookfield Road, Brookfield

Photo courtesy of Hatched via Facebook

Brookfield-based bakery Hatched sells cinnamon rolls, brownies, cookies, and more baked goods, but its main focus since its launch in 2018 has been pie. Owner Allison Cebulla took inspiration from years spent living on farms, making pies with seasonal, fresh ingredients, so Hatched has a constantly rotating menu based on what ingredients are in season.

Hatched has six different pies available for pre-order for Thanksgiving, including seasonal favorites like classic pumpkin and spiced cranberry, as well as the bakery’s black bottom oat pie. In addition to its 6-inch and 9-inch whole pies, Hatched is also selling a four-pack of hand pies, as well as pie fries—the bakery’s flaky dough, cut into Thanksgiving shapes and topped with cinnamon sugar. Thanksgiving pre-orders close Nov. 19, and can be picked up Nov. 22 at either the bakery’s production kitchen in Brookfield or Canary Coffee Bar in Milwaukee. Orders can be made on the bakery’s website.

Madison + suburbs

Norske Nook

100 East Holum St., DeForest

Norske Nook serves up a wide range of Norwegian and American meals for breakfast and lunch, but the restaurant is most known for its pie. Pie lovers can stop in one of the restaurant’s three locations, including suburban DeForest, a 15-mile drive from Madison, for a freshly-baked slice, or take a whole pie home. The restaurant sells pre-baked whole pies in more than 20 flavors, as well as frozen pies.

While customers can pick up a pie from the restaurant any day that it’s open, the deadline for Thanksgiving pies has passed. Norske Nook is closed on Thanksgiving day and will only open on the day before Thanksgiving for pie pickup, as the restaurant’s kitchen will be closed.

Batch Bakehouse

1402 Williamson St., Madison

Photo courtesy of Batch Bakehouse via Facebook

Every day, the staff at Batch Bakehouse makes all of the bakery’s breads, croissants, pastries, and pies from scratch. It’s a lot of work for the woman-owned business, but it pays off because occasionally the bakery will end up completely sold out of all of the products that were made that day. Instead of taking your chances on what’s available that day, the bakery allows customers to pre-order items, including its 3-inch mini pies that come in four flavors, or its seven different 9-inch pies.

Rolling Pin Bake Shop

2935 South Fish Hatchery Road Unit 4, Fitchburg

In 2002, Rolling Pin Bake Shop opened as a small-scale bakery, but has expanded in the past two decades into a full cafe, serving up breakfast and lunch every day while still crafting exceptional items in its bakery. The Fitchburg-based bakery, located just 5 miles outside of Madison, sells a wide variety of baked goods including breads, cheesecakes, cakes, cannolis, and of course, pie.

While Rolling Pin Bake Shop has a rotating selection of pies, depending on what ingredients are available and in season, they also have several pies that are always available, can be pre-ordered at any time and are ready to pick up within 48 hours. The bakery’s set pie menu includes traditional favorites like pumpkin, apple, and French chocolate silk.

Stella’s Bakery

2908 Syene Road, Madison

Photo courtesy of Stella’s Bakery via Facebook

Stella’s Bakery in Madison might be best known for its hot and spicy cheese bread, but the team there makes a pretty good pie, too. The bakery has one brick-and-mortar location in the state’s capital, but their products are also available all over the city, including at the Dane County Farmers Market, the Monona Farmers Market, and in several grocery stores and restaurants. 

Stella’s Bakery has a wide range of items that can be ordered for Thanksgiving, including four pie flavors: pumpkin, pecan, apple, and cherry. All of the bakery’s pies are made with Stella’s Bakery signature brown butter crust. Pre-ordered pies are available to be picked up Nov. 22, and orders can be placed on the bakery’s website.

St. Croix and Dunn counties

Sweet Beet Bakery

137 South Knowles Ave., New Richmond

Sweet Beet Bakery in New Richmond takes pride in its ingredients, which are all locally sourced, including its pie fillings. 

The bakery has 18 pies available for Thanksgiving, including a vegan pumpkin pie option, and all of them can be made gluten-free. Thanksgiving orders can be placed online or over the phone and are available to be picked up on Nov. 22.

Stockholm Pie & General Store

N2030 Spring St., Stockholm

Operating out of a building that’s more than a century old, Stockholm Pie & General Store has been a family business for more than a decade in Stockholm, a small town on the shores of the Mississippi. As the bakery’s name suggests, it specializes in pie, and offers up more than 20 varieties, from traditional pies like pumpkin and lemon meringue to more unique flavors like lingonberry lemon. Pies can be pre-ordered for Thanksgiving — orders need to be placed by Nov. 18, and can be picked up Nov. 22. 

If you’re not close to Stockholm or want a friend who doesn’t live nearby to enjoy what Stockholm Pie & General Store has to offer, the bakery offers whole pie shipping within the continental United States. Eight different flavors, including holiday favorites like classic apple and cherry, are available for shipping.

Smiling Pelican Bakeshop

W3556 WI-35, Maiden Rock

Photo courtesy of Smiling Pelican Bakeshop via Facebook

There’s typically a mad rush for pies around Thanksgiving at bakeries all across the country. That’s why Smiling Pelican Bakeshop, a bakery in Maiden Rock, has a strict pickup procedure when it comes to Thanksgiving treats. Desserts can be picked up at the bakery on Nov. 22, but they must have been ordered in advance and already paid for with either cash or check. While it’s not guaranteed, there might be a small amount of pies and other desserts available for purchase the same day without pre-order.

The bakery has five types of pie available for pre-order: pumpkin, pumpkin praline, chocolate pecan bourbon, cherry crumble, and raspberry custard.

Northwest Wisconsin

Alicia’s Baked Goods

2431 Greenfield Road, Spooner

At most bakeries that sell pie you can find the classics, like apple and pumpkin, but at Alicia’s Baked Goods in Spooner, you can order something a bit more unique: a bumbleberry pie. A bumbleberry isn’t a real berry—the pie, which originated in Canada, is made with a combination of blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and to differentiate it from a mixed berry pie, either apple or rhubarb.

Alicia’s Baked Goods takes pre-orders for whole Thanksgiving pies, as well as dinner rolls, and orders can be placed over the phone.

Reli’s Bakery

7541 WI-27, Hayward

Photo courtesy of Reli’s Bakery via Facebook

If you’re looking for a storefront for Reli’s Bakery, you’re out of luck. But if you’re in Hayward and looking for a tasty pie to bring home, you’re very much in luck, because Reli’s Bakery operates as a home bakery with set pick-up times rather than a storefront that’s open for certain hours. Reli’s Bakery, which sells its products at both the Spooner Farmers Market and Hayward Farmers Market during the summer, takes weekly orders through the phone or via Facebook message and has them ready for customers to pick up just a few days later.

The bakery sells four varieties of pie: cherry, blueberry, apple, and pecan, as well as an assortment of other baked goods like pumpkin bread and cookies.

Laura’s Bake Shop and Cafe

237 Walnut St., Spooner

One of Spooner’s points of pride is its many restaurants that make up the northwestern city’s culinary scene, including Laura’s Bake Shop and Cafe. The bakery sells a large amount of baked goods, including whole fruit pies that come in a multitude of flavors from apple to mixed berry to pumpkin. Fruit pies are available at the restaurant for $15 each, and cream pies like Laura’s banana cream pie and coconut cream pie are available for $18. The restaurant’s pie offerings don’t end with its traditional pies—Laura’s Bake Shop and Cafe also sells cheesecakes in several flavors, including traditional strawberry and lemon, as well as pineapple and blueberry for $15 each.

Laura’s Bake Shop and Cafe serves up a wide array of baked goods and desserts, including all of its pies, but it also functions as a cafe, with all-day breakfast and lunch specials available.