Austin’s adorable Tiny Pies are getting a little bigger this summer as the franchise expands out of the Austin area for the first time. The new store in Waco will set up inside Union Hall, a food hall modeled after European markets, with restaurants, food vendors, and community events. So far, there only appear to be two dessert vendors at Union Hall: milkshakes by Unshakeable, and the locally owned bakery Lollipop’s Sweet Treats.
Tiny Pies serves cupcake-sized pies made daily with as many local ingredients as seasonally possible. Hand pies — like little calzones — are not exactly revolutionary, and serve the same purpose Tiny Pies was created for, when baker Amanda Wadsworth wanted to send her son to school with a less-messy treat than a slice of pie. But part of the unique appeal of Tiny Pies is their charming shape; they look exactly the same as a full-sized pie, scaled down.
After Wadsworth’s son approved, so did Austin, eventually supporting four locations since its launch in 2011: on Burnet Road, South Lamar Boulevard, Bee Cave Road, and in Lakeway. Oprah Winfrey even added the business to her O List, prompting nationwide sales.
Customers always love classics like chocolate cream and Dutchy’s apple crumb, even as the menu changes to utilize in-season ingredients like Texas peaches. The business maintains holiday menus, too, currently celebrating Father’s Day and the UT class of 2022. Both special menus include packs with short phrases (“2022” and “#1 Dad”) and shapes (longhorns and stars) made out of crust. Other message packs, available to pre-order, offer generic encouragements and custom 12-character phrases.
A trip to Tiny Pies could also be a practical part of shopping for dinner, with savory options made with meat or vegetarian ingredients, like chicken pot pie and Beyond Meat nacho pie. Both will be available at the new Waco location, alongside egg-filled breakfast pies and “Pie Freezes” made by blending ice cream and pies. Some of these will be available frozen, to reheat at home, and in full, sharable sizes (if you feel like sharing it).
Visitors to the Waco location, slated to open this summer, will enjoy the mint green retro bakery and the ridiculously satisfying, simple pleasure of pointing at one very tiny pie to brighten up the day.
“We are thrilled to bring Tiny Pies to Waco after a decade of serving the Austin area,” Wadsworth says. “We’re looking forward to not only being part of the offerings at Union Hall, but baking up smiles for the Waco community.”
Tiny Pies fans from farther away — whether that’s a few miles or along another coast — can order through delivery services Doordash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, and Goldbelly.
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