The Wild Honey Pie Pairs Food & Music in the Hudson Valley

Photo courtesy The Wild Honey Pie

The Wild Honey Pie breaks down barriers between bands and their audiences with something everyone loves: great food.

What Is The Wild Honey Pie?

“We’re a creative agency that pairs musicians with brands and organizes events that come out of those partnerships,” says founder and Saugerties resident Eric Weiner. For the past six years, Weiner’s company has launched a series of supper clubs in cities like Brooklyn, Austin, and Washington D.C. The parties are sponsored by companies such as Topo Chico, Kohler, and Sierra Nevada, among others. Fans pay roughly $100 to hear a live performance and enjoy a meal prepared just for the event. There are drinks and merchandise, too.

Weiner’s aim is to create “unique experiences for music fans and foodies.” And intimate ones as well: the musicians play to, at most, 60 people. “At the end of the day, it’s about how we can effectively break down the barrier between artists and fans and create opportunities for people to come together and build community,” he explains. These performances are captured on video and playlists, which are then distributed to The Wild Honey Pie’s online audience via social media.

The Wild Honey Pie
Phoebe and Eric Weiner. Photo courtesy The Wild Honey Pie.

How It All Began

Weiner was a food-and-music blogger, his twin passions, while still a college student in Boulder, Colorado. He kept The Wild Honey Pie blog (named after The Beatles’ song from the “White Album”) going on the side after moving to New York City in 2010 to work as a music coordinator at MTV. By then, he’d morphed his blog into a music publication site, featuring videos of local bands that he and his friends shot themselves. By 2013, Weiner had left MTV to focus on The Wild Honey Pie’s events, like the Welcome Campers festival in the Berkshires, featuring not-yet-famous bands playing to an audience of roughly 400 people with sponsors like Clif Bar. “My goal has always been to find ways to support artists who are on the up and up. Musicians I love, musicians who inspire me, musicians I can help bring closer to their fans than ever before,” he says.

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Photo courtesy The Wild Honey Pie

The HV Connection

When Weiner’s Brooklyn landlord raised his rent during the pandemic, he and his wife Phoebe (the couple got married last year) decided to move to Saugerties to be closer to her job as an environmental lawyer in Albany. “We fell in love with the area, in part because there’s so much live music and music culture in general,” adds Weiner.

Summer Attractions

The agency is planning a series of pizza parties at various Catskills resorts, including AutoCamp Catskills, a deluxe campground in Saugerties. They’re partnering with Radio Woodstock to produce six concerts (the next event is at Kingston’s Hotel Kinsley on May 18) with wood-fired pies from Paulie Gee’s in Brooklyn, plus live music, cocktails, and non-alcoholic drinks.

The Wild Honey Pie food
Photo courtesy The Wild Honey Pie

Weiner calls these parties “a nice offshoot” of the supper club series. They’ll be bigger—around 150 people—but still intimate enough for people to make friends (if that’s what they want to do) and for musicians and fans to connect. As for performers, Weiner aims for indie and pop-influenced musicians with generation-spanning appeal. “I think it’s really important to select music that my parents’ generation is going to love and that my friends will love as well,” says Weiner, who’s in his mid-30s.

What’s Next

More Hudson Valley food-and-music-centric events—whether it’s concerts or supper clubs featuring local performers. “There are so many great restaurants that we can work with in Kingston, Rhinebeck, and Woodstock that I think would love the concept,” says Weiner, adding that Chleo in Kingston and Silvia in Woodstock are on his wish list. He wants to invest in the region by hiring local producers, musicians, sound engineers, bartenders, and videographers. But he’s just as keen to introduce fans and musicians to the Hudson Valley. “I freakin’ love the Catskills and the Hudson Valley,” he says. He hopes The Wild Honey Pie events will “help shine a light on the fact that these towns are great destinations for a quick trip or even an extended vacation.”

Related: Keep Your Hudson Valley Garden Cool and Healthy This Summer

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