The Black-Owned Bakery Chicago Drives Across Town For: Justice of the Pies

Her story is as amazing as her pies

Before Justice of the Pies became the Black-owned bakery in Chicago that people cross town to reach, it was a tribute to a man who called himself the Pie Master.

Stephen J. Broussard, who passed away in 2009, grew up in the projects and became a criminal defense attorney who wanted to represent people who looked like him. He loved baking anything with a crust, and believed everyone deserves an opportunity to reform their lives. When his daughter, pastry chef Maya-Camille Broussard, founded the bakery in 2014, she built that belief into the company itself. Restaurant Hospitality reports that Justice of the Pies is an L3C, a low profit limited liability company whose primary mission is social benefit but which, unlike a nonprofit, can distribute profits.
For nine years, the bakery had no front door. Broussard baked out of The Hatchery, a food and beverage incubator with more than 50 private professional kitchens, and sold pies to local grocery stores and farmers’ markets. Customers outside Chicago ordered through Goldbelly, which ships her pies nationwide. National recognition arrived before the storefront did. She starred on Netflix’s Bake Squad, and her cookbook, with more than 85 sweet and savory recipes, was named one of the best cookbooks of the year by Bon Appétit and the Los Angeles Times. She was a James Beard Award finalist in 2022, and Esquire named her its 2023 Pastry Chef of the Year.

A Black-owned Bakery in Chicago That Came Home to the South Side

In June 2023, Broussard opened her first brick and mortar bakery on Chicago’s South Side, in the former office of her mother’s dentist. The South Side is where she grew up. The location was deliberate. The Chicago Defender reports that she wants to bring more support, investment and visibility to the South Side, and that some people who preferred downtown pushed back on the choice. The neighbors answered for her. Broussard told NBC 5 that residents have stopped in to say, “I’ve lived here since 1969 and this is exactly what the neighborhood needs.”

Broussard has always been specific about what she wants. Thrillist reports that in 2018 she pinned a photo of Barack Obama and the Obama Foundation logo to her vision board as the client she wanted. The Obama Foundation became a client, and she worked alongside chefs Erick Williams of Virtue, Brian Jupiter of Frontier and Ina Mae, and Carlos Gaytan of Tzuco to feed 400 guests, the Obamas among them. At the end of the night, she met the former president. Her advice on vision boards is to be clear about the ask, because pasted words mean nothing if they don’t picture exactly what you want.

The menu rewards the trip. The Infatuation calls her key lime pie, made with strawberries and basil, the best in the city, and warm dishes like chicken pot pie come out after 11am. The case runs from classics like sweet potato pie to smoked gouda and spinach quiche. The mission runs alongside the menu. Broussard lost 75 percent of her hearing as a child. Several times a year, her I Knead Love workshop teaches elementary aged children from lower income homes about nutrition and basic cooking, supported by the Broussard Justice Foundation, the nonprofit she founded in 2020. Each year, a pie drive raises money for Cabrini Green Legal Aid, which supports low income people harmed by the criminal justice system. For anyone looking for a Black-owned bakery in Chicago where the dessert and the mission are the same thing, the bakery at 8655 S. Blackstone Ave. is open Friday through Sunday, 9am to 5pm.

You have to check out there menu here.