Pie Guy's Bakery And Cafe Opens In Chatham With Sweet Desserts And Savory Bowls

Co-owner Carleton Purnell never thought he'd own a restaurant, but now he hopes to start a legacy chain on the South Side alongside his wife, Charletha Purnell, and third co-owner Yalanda Williams.

CHATHAM — The owners of a Black-owned restaurant and cafe are on a mission to “make everybody happy with caramel cake.”

Pie Guy’s Bakery and Cafe, known for its gooey caramel cake and rice bowls slathered in spicy “Hauk sauce,” opened in April. The restaurant, tucked away on a residential street at 7907 S. Champlain Ave., has remained a secret gem in Chatham.

The cafe is the second commercial venture for owners Carleton Purnell, Charletha Purnell and Yalanda Williams. The trio opened Rehab Divas, a home remodel and design company at 637 E. 79th St. in 2017.

After three months of serving burgers, breakfast and desserts to the community, the trio is ready to extend its reach and become a citywide staple, Carleton Purnell said. You’ll never forget the moment you tried something handmade by the “Pie Guy,” Purnell said.

“When you try Pie Guy’s, you’re going to smile because you’re going to remember a good time,” Carleton Purnell said. “Food is like a time machine. When you eat it takes you back somewhere, and we’re building a legacy for happy memories and love.”

Carleton Purnell grew up on his grandmother’s hip in Gary, cooking potatoes and vegetables.

When he made simple items, like pancakes and eggs, he was always the last to eat because “everybody wanted me to cook something for them, too,” he said.

But he never planned to become a chef, let alone open a restaurant, he said.

When he met his wife and co-owner Charletha Purnell 15 years ago, his life “sounded like a bunch of lies, but he had the receipts,” he said.

He served in the military and worked as a bodyguard for celebrities like Paris Hilton, he said. He doubled as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson in “NBA Live 98,” modeled and appeared in Gatorade commercials. Long before finding his way to Chicago, he opened for rapper Snoop Dogg as a freestyle battle rapper in Los Angeles, Purnell said.

“If I see something I want to do, I’m going to go do it,” he said. “With my mindset and the way my brain works, there’s nothing I can’t do. If I like it, I’m going to do it, and I’ll do it better than anybody else in the room.”

In the early 2000s, Carleton Purnell was living in Las Vegas “having too much fun” as an event planner for large parties — another of his many careers, he said.

He called his mother one night to tell her he wasn’t sure he was living his life’s purpose, he said. Nothing felt right.

“She told me to pray about it,” Carleton Purnell said. “Two weeks later, my auntie called and told me she was sick with cancer.”

He “dropped everything” and went straight to her house in Indiana, he said. It was there he rediscovered his skill for cooking, becoming a live-in chef for his aunt and preparing “gourmet meals” her doctors said were safe to eat, Purnell said. He went to “nutritional school” to perfect the craft.

“Every meal was extravagant,” Purnell said. “I made her feel like she was at a bed and breakfast every day.”

He stayed with her until she died in 2008.

When his aunt died, Carleton Purnell moved to Chicago with “$53, a duffle bag, my mind and the good Lord,” he said. He also had a mean recipe for a sweet potato pie.

Charletha Purnell had long-encouraged him to open a restaurant or sell his food, he said. But when he made her four sweet potato pies and her family finished it in a day, selling his recipes became a requirement, he said.

Purnell took his sample of pies to a local Swap Meet where the couple sold Easter baskets, he said. They were gone by the end of the day.

“From then on, every weekend, there would be someone at our booth waiting for me,” Purnell said. “They didn’t know my name, so they would flag me down and call me ‘Pie Guy.’”

When word of his pies spread, Purnell began cooking meals to pair with the desserts, he said. He catered small events and walked around South Side neighborhoods with a heated bag to sell food to hungry beauticians, Purnell said.

Purnell transformed his home into a “super kitchen,” adding in an extra stove and four grills on the back porch to tackle the number of orders he was receiving, he said.

Part of the reason he opened a storefront is because his wife “wanted her house back,” Purnell said.

“By then, we had [Rehab Divas], and my wife said we should build a kitchen so she could have the one in our house again,” Purnell said. “We found this old, decrepit, haunted-looking office building, knocked some walls down, and built this space. Really, she just found a place where she could stick me next to her office.”

Now, Carleton Purnell arrives at Pie Guy’s Bakery and Cafe when the sun rises to prep stations of freshly chopped vegetables and sautéed meats. He’s there late at night, too, baking caramel cakes and “Sweet Potata Pie.”

On a busy Thursday in July, 20 orders buzz through the receipt printer, and the kitchen springs to life.

The slamming of skillets and the rhythmic pace of slamming knives are like a scene from Hulu’s “The Bear” — one of Purnell’s favorite shows.

Dubbed the “James Bond of cooking,” Purnell is decked out in all black, head to toe.

Local youth wearing bright orange shirts work the cooking stations. Purnell hires teens to “give them something to do they might love doing,” he said.

“You see their face light up when they taste something they’ve made or see the result of a dish,” Purnell said. “Their whole demeanor changes, and they’re proud of themselves. It gives them a sense of accomplishment so they can take pride in their work.”

After years of switching careers like clothes, Purnell isn’t sure he’ll always be at the front of the restaurant, he said. He’s already searching for a chef to replace him while he opens more locations across the city.

But, for now, you can find him behind the stove at the restaurant, building a legacy in Chatham, he said.

“I’m going to go where the day takes me,” Purnell said. “If I like something else, I might dive into it and tell everyone, ‘I’ll be right back.’”

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Atavia Reed is a reporter for Block Club Chicago, covering the Englewood, Auburn Gresham and Chatham neighborhoods.

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