After a long opening weekend of lines around the corner, running out of ingredients and having to offer vouchers for free slices of pie, Hoosier Mama Pie Company’s mama-in-chief, Paula Haney, was overwhelmed by the initial success of her new store.

When she got home after closing up shop one night, she received a call from a customer who was upset to hear they were closed.

“I heard all these kitchen sounds in the background, and I said, ‘Are you in a kitchen?’ And he was like, ‘Oh no, we’re in a restaurant and the dessert options just aren’t great, and we wanted to come for pie,'” Haney said.

Hoosier Mama Pie Company has been serving pie in local restaurants and coffee shops for more than three years. On March 14 (or Pi day), after months of testing the market and shopping around for storefronts, Haney opened her pie shop in the Ukrainian Village at 1618 1/2 W. Chicago Ave.

Since pie was her father’s favorite dessert, it has always been an integral and sentimental part of Haney’s life.

“This is the first thing that I learned how to make when I was growing up, so obviously I’m very attached to it,” she said.

Hoosier Mama serves up both traditional and unusual pies. Haney has about 40 recipes in her recipe box, but every pie is meant to be seasonal. Currently, they offer between 15 and 20 pies, ranging from apple pie to passionfruit meringue.

The more unusual pies, however, come from the pages of history.

“We do a lot of super-traditional pies that have just fallen off the pie map, so to speak,” Haney said. “People called them desperation pies. If you were out on the farm and it was in the middle of the winter, you would go to the pantry and be like, ‘Hey, I’ve got vinegar and flour and sugar and butter and eggs.’ Well, you could make a chess pie.”

Haney is always looking through old cookbooks and recipes in used bookstores. She’s also always experimenting with different ideas, such as the coffee cream pie that she’s currently working on.

All of the produce and coffee from Hoosier Mama comes from local businesses. She gets her produce from Green City Market, 1750 N. Clark St., and her coffee from Metropolis Coffee Co., 1039 W. Granville Ave.

The only major complaint circulating about Hoosier Mama is that they’re closed on Sundays. The reason for a lack of pie on Sunday is because Haney is an actual mama.

“I’m closed on Sunday because I have 1-year-old twins,” she said. “Sunday is our family day. That was our agreement. I worked in fine dining for a long time, and I know how precious that day off is.”

Haney opened the shop with only one other employee, Anne Marion.  She recently hired more people, but Marion has been with Haney for about two years.

“Before I started here, I think my idea of pie was that it was kind of a simple dessert and there wasn’t a whole lot of things you could do to it. It was just pie crust and filling, and there too wasn’t much to it,” Marion said. “What I like about it was that I was totally wrong. It’s way more complicated than that.”

Prior to opening her new storefront, Haney made all of her pies at Kitchen Chicago, 4664 N. Manor Ave., a shared-use commercial kitchen. There, Haney made all of her pies to distribute to local coffee houses and restaurants.

“She was with us for about three years and eventually grew her business until she needed her own space,” said Alexis Leverenz, owner of Kitchen Chicago. “I couldn’t be happier for her.”

The little dining area in the front of the shop only has a few seats, and the walls are covered in antiques and cookbooks from Haney’s house.

One of the greatest pleasures for Haney in her new pie shop is getting to see who comes in.

“It really is so exciting, ’cause all that I really wanted was to have a place where people can come in and have pie and a cup of coffee and read the paper or read their mail or do whatever,” she said.

Marion lit up at the mention of this and said, “There was somebody in here knitting!” Haney was also excited about that.

“Yeah, there was a woman in here knitting! She was just sitting there,” Haney said, gesturing to the front table. “It was great!”