Rikki’s Is Hosting a Lesbian Pie-Eating Contest

In the months since it opened, Rikki’s, the Bay Area’s first sports bar dedicated to women’s athletics, has hosted all kinds of queer-friendly, women-centric community events. Joyous Pride Week celebrations. Moving reunions of friends honoring a loved one who recently passed. And, of course, rollicking Golden State Valkyries watch parties.

And now, just ahead of Thanksgiving, another first: On Sunday, Nov. 23, the Castro District bar will host what might be San Francisco’s first ever lesbian pie-eating contest (yes, you read that correctly) — an epically sloppy, no-hands, no-forks battle for bragging rights and a $100 cash prize.

The event is the brainchild of Curve magazine founder Franco Stevens, whose nonprofit Curve Foundation now manages the legendary San Francisco–based lesbian magazine’s 30-plus-year archives. Reached by phone, Stevens explains that she’s always hosted a “Friday Pie Day” on the day after Thanksgiving as a way for friends and family to share all of the leftover pie they accumulate during the holiday. Often, someone would bring up the idea of having a pie-eating contest. “God, it kind of is a funny lesbian joke,” Stevens remembers thinking, “so I think I’m going to just do it.”

To put it plainly: “Oftentimes a woman’s private areas are called ‘pies,’” Stevens explains. “So the lesbian pie eating contest is a pun on that.”

Stevens, who lives in Oakland, says lesbian pie eating contests aren’t necessarily a long-held tradition in the LGBTQ+ community, at least that she’s aware of. But in the past couple of years, she has started seeing them pop up as tongue-in-cheek one-off events at queer bars in places like Portland and Brooklyn. One recent edition even inspired an extended riff by the comedian Jenny Hagel on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

“A lesbian pie-eating contest was held in Brooklyn last month … and it’s still happening because every contestant is taking their time and doing it right,” Hagel says in the set. “It’s like a straight pie-eating contest except the pie enjoys it.”

The jokes, of course, write themselves. But Stevens stresses that while the contest itself will be lighthearted and fun, it will also benefit a good cause. Her main goal is to promote next year’s Lesbian Visibility Week (April 21–26, 2026), whose festivities in the U.S. and Canada are all organized by the Curve Foundation. Launched in 2020, the annual event’s stated mission is to “shine a light on the experiences, perspectives and needs of LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people.” In San Francisco, that has included a flag-raising ceremony, film screenings and events focused on celebrating local lesbian history.

Funds raised from the pie-eating contest, specifically, will help pay for permitting fees to install Lesbian Visibility Week banners in the Castro District for the entire month of April.

The contest itself won’t be a free-for-all either. While Rikki’s co-owner Danielle Thoe won’t be competing herself, she says she’s been asked to be one of the judges: “I said, ‘I don’t know what that means, but sure.’” Mainly, it seems, she’ll be tasked with making sure that no one cheats — that every last inch of those pies get eaten. The “pie athletes” who pay the $5 entry fee (plus an additional $10 for the pie, though they can also opt to bring their own) will be judged on speed and thoroughness. Whoever finishes first will be declared the winner.

As Stevens puts it, “No forks. No hands. No shame. Just get your face in there, and whoever can finish the pie fastest is going to get the $100.”

The competition will, in other words, require real speed-eating skills — though Stevens expects to have participants of all stripes. “We could have a couple of pie lickers out there that are just in it for the performance art,” she adds. “We’re totally fine with that.”

To help make the pie-munching bonanza an even bigger success, Stevens says she’s hoping a couple of local businesses might step up at the eleventh hour — either to donate (or pay for) the 20 9-inch pumpkin pies that the contestants will be eating, or to put up the money for the cash prize.

And if all goes well, Stevens would like the lesbian pie eating contest to be more than a one-night stand. Instead, she hopes it will be a new San Francisco tradition that continues for years to come.

The Lesbian Pie-Eating Contest will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 23, at Rikki’s (2223 Market St., San Francisco). The entry fee is $5, plus $10 for a pie (for contestants who don’t bring their own). Spectator tickets are free.