Southern California is becoming a bit of a pizza hot spot lately with celebrated pizza makers opening locations in the Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods. There’s even an annual Pizza City Fest returning to L.A. LIVE next weekend, April 25-26.
With the pizza-loving crowd in mind, the Coachella Music and Arts Festival did not disappoint this year when it came to it’s pizza offerings at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, which included everything from New York style pies to vegan options.
Here’s our top three favorite pizza spots of the festival.
It’s Hip to be Square
Prince Street Pizza is a New York-founded pizzeria known for its Sicilian-style square slices with nearly 20 locations nationwide and several in Southern California. They try to keep things as authentic as possible, even using a water filtration process that replicates the water used in New York. The result is a thick pizza with a perfectly crusted bottom.
“This Sicilian-style that we have is not something most people are doing,” said Trey Baker, who runs the events and activations for the company and was busy serving slices on Sunday afternoon.
Their bestseller is the Pepperoni Square, which is covered in tons of pepperoni and comes with spicy marinara, mozzarella and pecorino romano. It can also be drizzled with a creamy garlic aioli or hot honey drizzle. Go with the hot honey.
And if you missed them at Coachella, Prince Street will also be at the LA Pizza Fest.
Vegan Slices
For vegans the place to be was Forever Pie in the Indio Central Market. All the slices here are vegan, rich and juicy and full of tomato sauce. It’s almost like a thinner crust version of a Chicago deep dish pizza.
“We got named the best pizza last year at Coachella,” said server Whitney Marshall. “Everything we do is completely plant-based.”
“Even the pepperoni is plant based and you will never know it, so we take a lot of pride in that,” she added.
One of their top sellers is the Killa Beez Slice. It’s made with calabran chili and agave drizzle. It’s definitely got a bit of a sting to it but nothing most people can’t handle. They don’t have a brick and mortar shop, but they attend pretty much all the local festivals.
Best Walking Around Pizza
It can be kind of a pain at music festivals to grab food and move to the next stage. But for those who went to Spicy Pie in Street Food Alley, they had the perfect festival to-go meal. It’s a foldable slice that’s easy to walk around with and not make a mess. Plus it’s pretty delicious with a nicely crusted dough and jalapenos.
“Our house dough is hand-made and we hand stretch our dough,” said Huck Berry, the manager of the Coachella booth. The shop also specializes in music festivals without a typical brick-and-mortar location.
Other pizza spots included San Matteo Pizzeria, serving up Neapolitan style pizza; Saucy, a wood-fired pizza experience spot; and Angelenos’ Wood Fired Pizza.