Every year, Goldenvoice and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival select some local businesses to offer a slice of the desert. For example, Indio’s Everbloom Coffee was at the festivals last year, and is back for 2024.
Joining Everbloom this year is Indio sandwich shop TKB Bakery and Deli. The restaurant has garnered national attention: In 2018, TKB 2018 was No. 1 on the Yelp Top 100 Places To Eat List—the fourth year in a row TKB finished in Yelp’s Top 5.
TKB—aka The Kid’s Business—can be found on the festival grounds near Spectra (the colorful tower), right next to the Pies & Lows restaurant.
“I did Splash House last year in Palm Springs with the TKB food truck, so that kind of gave me an introduction to work with Goldenvoice,” said Melina Sippel, one of the siblings who runs TKB, during an on-site interview. “I decided to do Coachella, because every year at about 3 p.m., at the Indio location, it dies down to nothing. I said, ‘Screw it; let’s come out here, and let’s go from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m., and show these people these awesome sandwiches.”
While there’s no signage at the TKB booth mentioning its valley ties, Sippel and her team have been enjoying letting people know that their brick-and-mortar restaurant is located just down the street.
“I think our biggest sale here is that all the bread was baked fresh this morning, and it’s just five miles away,” Sippel said.
Serving TKB’s top-rated sandwiches to many thousands of festival attendees has been just one of the positives of being at Coachella, Sippel said.
“It’s meeting all the people behind the scenes that I really like,” she said. “I’ve been able to cater to the security for Coachella. With Goldenvoice and BBC (Best Beverage Company) and Levy Restaurants (both are festival/events-focused companies), they didn’t even know about TKB, and they come here for a whole month in April. I was like, ‘Come by the restaurant and get some sandwiches! Use our private dining!’ It’s been cool to see all the people who come here the whole month of April to work, and then tell them, ‘Hey, come to our sandwich shop; it’s down the street!’”
“For the longest, I’ve enjoyed the festival myself, so I want to come to it, and I don’t want to work it. It’s definitely a whole different vibe when you work here.”
TKB co-owner Melina Sippel
Sippel expressed gratitude for TKB’s local fanbase.
“The one thing about the Coachella Valley that everybody from the Coachella Valley already knows is that this city really shows (support),” Sippel said. “They put me on the news three times; they’re so supportive. (Local fans) share everything online. I love this valley more than anything in the whole world, and doing Coachella … I just want to do it for the Coachella Valley, and show them that I can do it and be a part of the world’s largest festival.”
Sippel admitted that her team hesitated to even consider being a vendor. But after a wildly successful Weekend One, Sippel said she and her crew have no regrets.
“The reason why my brothers and I never did Coachella is because it’s a lot,” she said. “We already are busy at the shop. For the longest time I’ve enjoyed the festival myself, so I want to come to it, and I don’t want to work it. It’s definitely a whole different vibe when you work here. It’s a whole different beast, but it’s awesome, and all the people … are such big supporters of our restaurant here that I’ll do it again, or cater for them and all that stuff.”
Sippel said that other local vendors who get offered a space at Coachella in the future should not hesitate to reach out.
“Call me,” she said. “You’re going to want equipment; you’re going to want a lot of hands. Expect anything to happen. You’re mobile, so think of a mobile restaurant, and anything that could happen, happens.”
Sippel encouraged locals who are out at this second weekend of Coachella or Stagecoach to come by.
“Everything’s made fresh every day from scratch,” Sippel said. “You can’t go wrong with that.”
