Sure, sure, the biggest reason anyone goes to Outside Lands is the music, but a very close second is the stellar food and drink lineup. After all, you gotta stay fueled for the headliner sets from Kendrick Lamar, Foo Fighters, and Odesza, especially after a day of walking around the Polo Fields at Golden Gate Park. This is the 15th year of Outside Lands, with more than 95 restaurants and pop-ups serving food at the festival, which runs from August 11 to 13.
Outside Lands will see a number of restaurants returning from across San Francisco and the Bay Area for the three-day weekend, along with some new names on the music festival food circuit — plus a couple of yet-to-launch restaurants. San Francisco’s Um.ma, Sandy’s, Suppenkuche, Bodega SF, Sorrel, and Tacolicious, are all rejoining the lineup along with the East Bay’s Daytrip, Jo’s Modern Thai, Wahpepah’s Kitchen, and El Garage, among others.
Among the restaurants making their Outside Lands debut are Shuggie’s Trash Pie & Natural Wine, Horn Barbecue, Dirty Habit, Lulu Berkeley, Parche, and the Kon-Tiki. New Mission restaurant Piglet & Co. is also making its “debut” at the festival, although technically chef Chris Yang and partner Marcelle Gonzales Yang navigated the festival last year with their pop-up El Chino Grande. New pop-ups at Outside Lands include My Friend Fernando from chef Jacob Croom, and nonprofit La Cocina will also come back, this time with businesses Alma y Sazon, Bocadito Colombian Snackeria, and Clandestina Cocina operating as the La Cocina Taco Tour.
Meanwhile, two other new food vendors worth looking out for are Moon and the Lodge at Marconi, both of which have yet to formally debut in the Bay Area. Moon is the upcoming new restaurant from Michelin-starred Sorrel set to open in the fall and billed as a laidback spot serving coastal California-Asian-inspired food cooked over an open flame. At Outside Lands, the soon-to-be restaurant is serving skewers of harissa-spiced lamb and ginger beef, as well as smashed chile cucumbers. The Lodge at Marconi is a new resort and restaurant in Tomales Bay run by Oliver Hospitality from Nashville; the Lodge will be serving two styles of tater tots, a spicy version and a poke-loaded option.
The food offerings get fancier, of course, especially with the VIP section and uber-luxe, Ken Fulk-designed Golden Gate Club. Kaiyo will serve Peruvian and Japanese food such as sushi rolls, karaage chicken sandwiches, and Peruvian anticucho skewers in the VIP section, joining A16, Woodhouse Fish Co., Global Gourmet Catering, and Sweet July. Over at the Golden Gate Club, chef Ravi Kapur of Liholiho Yacht Club, Tyler Florence of Miller & Lux, as well as chefs Nancy Oakes and Dana Younkin of Boulevard will all be on hand to cook for the discerning Golden Gate Club crowd.
Outside Lands is keeping the details of the beverage lineup under wraps until a later date, but to see the full food lineup, head to the Outside Lands website.
