At the third annual pie-eating competition held at Mozart’s Coffee Roasters on Friday afternoon, a scream of loud cheers erupted across Lake Austin despite the rain dripping from the red, white, and blue decorations. As scores of competitors got ready for a sweaty, star-studded battle, barbershop quartet Better Than Before played patriotic a cappella songs in the backdrop.
Mozart’s transformed its customary Father’s Day pie-eating competition into a two-day Fourth of July event this year. UT students were among the 72 participants, ages 16 to 54, and hundreds of spectators attended the free, family-friendly event. The competition featured everything Mozart’s bakes, brews, and brings together for the Austin community, with awards ranging from lake cruises to branded merchandise, live music performances, and 400 cherry pies made in-house.
We’ve worked hard over the years to involve the community in Mozart’s events, said Stacey Leonard, co-owner of the cafe. Making this a family-friendly event was a logical choice.
She claimed that the celebration’s four pillars—music and entertainment, bakery, coffee, and location—reflect Mozart’s basic principles.
According to Leonard, all of it is combined in the pie-eating competition. Our ability to handle everything internally is what distinguishes us as a more genuine cafe.
As competitors dived headfirst into little cherry pies, sending crumbs flying across the platform, Janelle Sosa, director of marketing and promotions for Mozart, scurried across the stage holding a camera in one hand and extra water bottles in the other. Sosa said the competition offered an opportunity to interact with UT students in addition to documenting the commotion for Mozart’s Instagram followers.
“We know how important the UT student population is to what we do, which is a big part of why we’re doing it,” Sosa said. While most UT students are on summer vacation, we still have non-traditional students in our backyard (at Brackenridge Apartments) that we can invite to another exciting event to encourage them to come to Mozart’s! even while you’re not in class.
Sarthak Sarans, a first-time competitor, described the competition as combining Austin’s best traits into a single event.
Sarans, a junior studying electrical and computer engineering at UT, remarked that (Mozart’s) truly captures Austin as a whole and brings many of the activities that people enjoy doing in Austin to one pleasant location. In addition, it was free and family-friendly, which combined to make it a well-planned event.
With his family cheering him on in the crowd, Saran’s loss didn’t seem like a loss even though he crushed three pies. The supportive environment Mozart intended for this event was shaped by the cheers of each family in the audience for their competitors.
Sarans declared, “I will most certainly be returning.” And I’m hoping to win something.
