How Spicy Pie Became Coachella's Most Iconic Food

Article by: Graham Berry|@Festival_Writer

Fri April 20, 2018 | 05:07 AM


Spicy Pie is a nomadic restaurant with 18 years of experience. We have traveled all over the United States. During our travels we were fortunate to have many opportunities for growth. You know the kind....the "impossibles". Giving up was never an option for us. Problem solving is the most important skill a food vendor or festival attendee can have. Inventing back up plans for our back up plans helped us get those gigantic tasty slices on your plate so you could focus on the music.

Spicy Pie's Website

When Chris and JJ set out to bring their pizza business to festivals, everyone knew they could make a mean pie. However, few could have imagined Spice Pie would rise to become perhaps the iconic festival snack – at Coachella, Bonnaroo, and many other events – that it is today. In addition to being a leader by taste, Spicy Pie is one of the premier vending partners at Coachella, distinguished by the right to retain branding out on the polo fields. Others receive more generic storefronts with signage like “Paella,” “Burritos” and “Chicken & Waffles.” There is even a competing pizza stand that simply reads “Pizza.”

Over the better part of two decades, Coachella attendees have seen Spicy Pie love blossoms as lines grew, even in the heat of a mid-April afternoon.

Coachella Do Lab Stage 2017 Watchara Phomicinda    17 Of 27

It hasn’t just been the music fans revelling in slices either. Last year, Justin Martin threw a pizza party at Do LaB stage to celebrate his love of pizza. Naturally, Spicy Pie was there!

Coachella Do Lab Stage 2017 Watchara Phomicinda    1 Of 27

Last weekend, Beyoncé's entourage was stage-starved and ready to eat. They had all the luxuries available to them at the festival but opted to put in a big order as a show of love for the cheesy, saucy signature Coachella meal.

Throughout the event, it’s easy to work up an appetite doing all that dancing – and yes, everyone likes pizza – but those facts alone can’t explain the disproportionate lines of famished tank top- and flower crown-wearing festies in front of each location. Those lines are proof of just what a cult classic cuisine Spicy Pie has become.

It’s a fandom that undoubtedly took years to cook up, but today the pizza business is known as a staple of authenticity at the event, to the extent that even Spicy Pie asks “Did you really go to 'chella if you didn’t get Spicy Pie?”

By all accounts their success is growing fast. If the flyer posted below is any indication, we’re going to see a lot more Spicy Pie love across the festival scene in 2018, too!