Order Honey Butter Fried Chicken on Piece Pizza Starting Next Week

Next month, a trio of Chicago’s best restaurants that are all on the Eater Chicago 38 will launch a few collaborative efforts that should result in some tasty new combinations. Starting on July 1, customers at Piece Pizzeria can order New Haven-style pies with pieces of Honey Butter Fried Chicken as a topping. HFBC is also launching a permanent specialty pizza on Piece’s menu. But that’s not all: later in July, Piece will also start offering pies from Bang Bang Pie Shop.

Piece owner Bill Jacobs is friends with Honey Butter Fried Chicken’s Christine Cikowski and Josh Kulp. Every year, they partner to offer a pizza special for one winter month. Proceeds from sales going to charity. The new special will be different from previous specials and it will find a permanent space on Piece’s menu. It’s a red-sauce pie with a blend of mozzarella, cheddar, and parmesan. They’ll top it with fried chicken pieces, red and banana peppers, fried crunchies, and honey drizzle: “I think this is the best one that they’ve done,” said Jacobs.

HBFC is the second alum from Piece’s Pilot Light fund-raising campaigns to find a permanent menu spot. Piece already collaborates with Doug Sohn, serving the “Atomic Pizza” featuring a spicy sausage that was once served at Sohn’s celebrated hot dog stand, Hot Doug’s. It also offers the “Atomic Sausage” as a topping. The restaurant goes through 150 to 180 pounds of that particular encased meat every week, according to Jacobs.

Bang Bang Pie’s Michael Ciapciak will start supplying Piece with classic selections like his key lime pie. It’s the only pie that’s always on Bang Bang’s rotating and seasonal menu. Eventually, Piece will offer more of the daring varieties. Supplying pies to Piece will hopefully give Bang Bang even more name recognition: “Bang Bang and Piece; pie and pie,” Ciapciak said. “What’s more classic than that?”