Pie Night Is Returning To Dominique Ansel Kitchen

Dominique Ansel, the hybrid pastry genius, is known for inventing much-hyped desserts like the cronut, the apple pie corn dog, and watermelon soft serve. In 2015, Ansel threw a single successful "Pie Night" — and now he is bringing back the circular feast for another series of evenings. The star baker will be hosting three hour-long pie tastings per night on Wednesdays and Thursdays in September at his Dominque Ansel Kitchen in New York.

For $50 a person, diners will be able to enjoy unlimited slices of nine different kinds of sweet and savory pies. The slices will be served with mulled wine and homemade vanilla or salted caramel ice cream at no extra cost.

The Daily Meal asked Ansel what inspired him to create Pie Night. "A few years ago, our team went apple picking in New Jersey during the fall and ended up getting about 200 pounds of apples — a little bit more than we anticipated!" he explained. "So we decided to hold a small event where we'd make different pies and invite our customers to come eat pies with us.

"The first year, it was just one night of Pie Night, but so many people tried to get tickets that they crashed our website...I sent a message out on Twitter and Instagram telling people to email us for tickets instead, but then we got 700 emails within an hour or two. We've learned since then! Now we do a whole series of Pie Nights throughout September each year, and it's always a lot of fun to see some of our most loyal guests who have made it an annual tradition of their own, and lots of new faces too."

Ansel says that his favorite part each year is coming up with a brand new menu of pies.

His favorites, he says, are his savory braised oxtail and Black Forest ham and fontina pies and his sweet chocolate horchata offering.

"We have a few guests who are very organized in their pie eating strategy," he adds. "They start off with savory slices and then finish with the sweet ones. Other people just go for all of them at once and then get seconds of their favorites."

Tickets go live Monday Aug. 28 for the event. Pie Night will be held every Wednesday and Thursday night starting Sept. 13.

Those who can't attend can still purchase several of the pies on Dominique Ansel Kitchen's website. Ansel says that way, "if you aren't able to make it to Pie Night or you really loved a pie that you tried at Pie Night, you can order one to bring home."

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