Indio restaurant owners share how festivalgoers impacted their business

As the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival comes to a close, local restaurant owners in Indio are still hard at work.

David Vasquez, manager, of Sayulita Tap Room tells News Channel 3, "Honestly, we're actually excited that we have a lot of people in just for Coachella. Coachella is bringing us a lot business."

Sayulita Tap Room opened up during the pandemic, and it's weekends like these that get Vasquez excited about the restaurant's growth.

Vasquez hopes to see the clientele continue to pick up, even after festival season, "More than anything, we want locals to come here. Yeah, just to kind of hang out.” 

He says he saw a larger crowd Weekend One, but that wasn't the case for Lala's Waffles, Crepes, and shakes just across the street.

The owner, Karla Lara, said, "This second weekend was actually busier for us than the first one. I think today we might actually break a record for sales.”

Lara tells me a special guest, who happened to perform at Coachella, may have helped bring in the numbers this weekend.

"We actually had a musician, his name is Natanael Cano. He's a Mexican singer, very famous. And he came to our restaurant two days in a row," says Lara.

However, the excitement of festival season also comes with its challenges, "Unfortunately because we're short staffed, I have to step in, and I actually have to cook. So I've been cooking since I eight in the morning. And, you know, all the way to closing," shares Lara.

Although Lara has had difficulty accommodating the festival crowds, she is thankful for her restaurant's location during this time of year.

Several restaurant owners I spoke to say they'd like to improve staffing for upcoming festivals.