"On a blustery, cold December Saturday, Bula Pies Fiji is filled with island warmth. Reggae plays softly from the outdoor speakers, and inside the small Vallejo cafe, a couple huddles over a pair of steaming hot hand pies while a family from Arizona waits for a large order of frozen pies. The family plans to take the pies back home with them, so co-owner Lysandra Oliver has left the tops of the boxes open and just enough space to put in some ice packs."
""You need to open in Arizona!" one person says as they head out the door with their spoils. Bula Pies Fiji, which opened on Springs Road in the summer of 2024, certainly feels ripe for expansion. Already, service is fast, the food is hot and homey, and the enormous logo on the wall of a smiling Fijian man holding out a pie feels like a brand poised to go around the world."
"Celestino Oliver never set out to run a restaurant. An electrician by trade, he has no formal background in cooking or baking. Bula Pies Fiji started out as a simple way to eat lunch on the job site, mixing up leftovers and baking them into hand pies with the taste of his home country, Fiji. Until one of his clients smelled the pies. "We were having lunch, and he was like, 'Oh my God, it smells so good in here,'" Celestino said."
Bula Pies Fiji operates a small Vallejo cafe that combines island warmth, reggae, and homey hand pies served hot or frozen for travel. Co-owner Lysandra Oliver prepares orders for distant customers by leaving box tops open with space for ice packs. The business opened on Springs Road in summer 2024 and displays rapid service, comforting food, and a bold brand image. Co-owner Celestino Oliver, an electrician with no formal culinary training, developed the pies from job-site lunches. A client’s successive large orders quickly drove the operation from homemade lunches to a demand-driven pie business.
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