Fyre Festival is the scam that keeps on giving.
The luxury getaway-turned-viral nightmare that spawned two documentaries, a flood of lawsuits, an infamous meme, and a mild Twitter breakdown from rapper Ja Rule has now led to a uniquely Fyre-inspired culinary experience: the Festival Pyzza.
The fast-casual New Jersey-based Italian restaurant chain Villa Italian Kitchen introduced the Festival Pyzza on Friday, modeled after the unforgettable viral image of a cheese sandwich (read: two slices of cheese on two open-faced slices of bread) that Fyre Festival attendees were served upon arriving at the campsite.
Here's the dinner they fed us tonight. Literally slices of bread, cheese, and salad with no dressing. #fyrefraud #fyrefestival #dumpsterfyre pic.twitter.com/NmNXakSFlq
— Trevor DeHaas (@trev4president) April 28, 2017
This is not Villa Italian Kitchen’s first foray into viral meme territory: the restaurant recently made headlines for its inspired — if not somewhat controversial — move to offer gender reveal lasagna. As implied by the name, the lasagna is dyed either pink or blue to notate your baby’s sex.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Much in the same vein, the Festival Pyzza is nothing if not committed to the bit. Villa Italian Kitchen captioned the promotional image in flowery marketing language familiar to anyone following the Fyre Festival saga: “Introducing the greatest pizza that never happened: our Festival Pyzza, a new luxury pizza experience exclusively for the wealthiest consumers and industry influencers! Made with only the finest fresh ingredients available including sauce made from California tomatoes, hand-stretched dough and premium individually-packaged processed cheese product.”
And the Festival Pyzza...delivers? For $25 — truly an influencer price point — you can get yourself a bare slice topped with tomato sauce and two slices of unmelted cheese. It is served with a small, wilted side salad, no dressing, and packaged in a styrofoam to-go box. The photo is a dead ringer for the sad sandwich.
Villa Italian Kitchen is not concerned that its spoof product might be behind the curve by rolling out almost two years after the Fyre Festival’s catastrophic run. In fact, a spokesperson told Food & Wine magazine the chain is expected to sell at least 5,000 slices “based off nostalgia alone” — and there’s no rush for anyone looking to recreate that unforgettable photo, as the Festival Pyzza will be on the menu for the next six years.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT