Conversations with Julia Harper

Today we’re excited to be connecting with Julia Harper again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.

Julia, we are so thrilled to be connecting again and can’t wait to hear about all the amazing things you have been up to. Before we jump into all of that, some of our readers might have missed our prior interview, so can you take a moment to reintroduce yourself?
Hi! I’m Julia Harper, and along with my husband Dan, I’m the owner of The Funky Pita. We’re food vendors serving gyros, falafel, and mac and cheese at festivals and large-scale events. Our goal is to offer a menu that everyone can enjoy, including those with vegetarian and vegan diets. We pride ourselves on serving fresh, high-quality food, fast!

We got into this business because of our passion for food and music. Years ago, we wanted to follow our favorite band, Phish, around the country. To fund our travels, we became vendors in the parking lots, feeding the hungry crowds before and after the shows. Our little food stand quickly became a hit, and we realized our Funky Pitas were a crowd favorite! Since then, we’ve expanded, grown our stand, and for years, we’ve been serving our pitas at festivals and large-scale events across the country.

Alright, so our main goal today is to give our audience an update on what you have been up to since our last conversation. We’d love to hear how things are going and what you are most looking forward to or excited about these days.
I just checked, and it looks like the last time I spoke to you was in February of 2020. Wow! I had no idea then just how much would change with Covid only a month later. At that time, my husband and I were traveling back and forth between Arizona and Colorado during the peak festival seasons with our business. We were also working part-time jobs in the hospitality industry to supplement our income. But once Covid hit, we lost everything. All of our festivals were canceled, and our part-time resort jobs disappeared. We literally didn’t know what to do.

We were in Arizona at the time, so we decided to stay there during the lockdowns. We found regular 9-to-5 jobs, but quickly realized how much we missed The Funky Pita. Before Covid, we had always been serving under tents at festivals. But when Covid hit, we saw an opportunity to continue serving our food—if we had a food truck. We found the perfect little food trailer and hired a professional designer to have it wrapped. Almost immediately, we were able to start serving again!

We also realized that we no longer wanted to rely on part-time jobs to supplement our income. We wanted to go full force with The Funky Pita and make it a year-round business. When we first returned after the Covid shutdowns, our funds were extremely limited. Dan and I worked all the festivals by ourselves, managing long lines as a two-person team. It was a lot of work, but somehow we made it. Slowly, as we rebuilt our business, we were able to hire more staff and expand our setup. Today, we typically have a staff of 5-6 at each of our events, and our setup is now twice as large as it was pre-Covid.

We also realized that our small food trailer was no longer needed for The Funky Pita, so we transferred it to an ice cream truck called Funday Sundaes and began working events with it last summer.

In many ways, Covid was awful and scary, but the silver lining is that it gave us the time to refocus on our business and grow it in ways we don’t think would have been possible otherwise. Now, we’re looking at even more opportunities to expand and branch out.

Alright, so let’s do something a bit more fast-paced and lighthearted. We call this our lightning round and we’ll ask you a few quick questions.

• Favorite Movie: Almost Famous, The Big Lebowski, and The Princess Bride
• Favorite Book: So many to choose from but some of my favorites are The Handmaid’s Tail, The Hunger Games, and the You are a Badass Series
• Favorite TV Show: Also, so many to choose, but I could watch Seinfeld and The Office over and over.
• Favorite Band or Artist: Phish
• Sweet or Savory: Both depending on my craving!
• Mountains or Beach: Both!
• Favorite Sport (to watch): I am not really a sports watcher, but love the Olympics and the X-Games
• Favorite Sport (to play): Snowboard, mountain bike, yoga- do those count as sports?
• Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): I was a dancer
• As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: Actress
• French Fries or Onion Rings: French Fries
• Chuck Rhodes or Bobby Axelrod: Billions is on my playlist, but haven’t watched it yet.
• Favorite Cartoon growing up: Daria
• Favorite Childhood movie: The Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
• Favorite Breakfast Food: Bagel and Lox or Huevos Rancheros

What are you most excited about in the coming year?
Things have changed a lot in our business over the last four years, and we’ve also seen some concerning shifts in the festival industry. Many events, particularly music festivals, are being canceled or postponed. Two of our biggest festivals have already been postponed to next year. This always brings anxiety and concern. However, based on past experience, I know this is when we get creative. We’ve learned to weather tough times by coming up with new ideas that ultimately allow us to grow.

I’m already brainstorming new locations where we can set up. We also have our ice cream concept, Funday Sundaes, ready to thrive in 2025. Additionally, we’ve launched a line of Aloha shirts, called Cool Shade Designs, to complement both of our food concepts.

I truly believe that this is a year of change that will lead to big growth. After Covid, we came back bigger and better than ever. I’m excited to see where we’ll be at this time in 2025!

Image Credits
They are all my pictures.