Come for Charli XCX, stay for the prime rib dip.
This year’s Outside Lands music festival, scheduled for Aug. 7-9, is loading up its food and drink lineup with San Francisco institutions, festival-only collaborations, new pastry carts, chef-driven VIP menus and enough cocktails, wine and beer to make Golden Gate Park feel like a three-day culinary tour.
The 2026 Taste of the Bay Area program will feature 100 Bay Area restaurants spanning 53 cuisines, organizers announced Tuesday, May 12. The most nostalgic additions are three long-running San Francisco restaurants: Original Joe’s, Perry’s and Balboa Cafe.
Original Joe’s plans to serve its classic prime rib dip sandwiches and spicy rigatoni, while Perry’s will bring cheeseburgers, chicken Caesar wraps and fries. Balboa Cafe’s menu includes chicken paillard sandwiches, Caesar salad wraps and espresso martinis on tap with cold foam.
The trio join longtime Outside Lands fixtures including Alicia’s Tamales Los Mayas, Azalina’s, Bini’s Kitchen, Koja Kitchen, Señor Sisig, Tacolicious and Woodhouse Fish Co.
But the festival’s one-off collaborations may be the real draw. Wise Sons x Outta Sight Pizza will serve hot pastrami dip sandwiches, pizza bagels with burrata and cacio e pepe fries; Jaji x Tallboy is pairing Afghan-inspired lavash wraps with dirty martini olive potato chips; and Reem’s x Lion Dance Cafe will offer dishes such as vegan fried eggplant and potato flatbread wraps with sambal tomat.
The newcomers stretch across the Bay Area’s food map, including Jollof Kitchen, with Nigerian grilled chicken and jollof rice, and Meski, the Ethiopian and Afro-Latin restaurant from chef Nelson German of Sobre Mesa and co-owner Draymond Green.
Two festival attendees check out a row of food vendor options at Outside Lands in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The festival’s 2026 food and drink lineup will feature 100 Bay Area restaurants. (Jessica Christian/The Chronicle)
Meanwhile, VIP ticket holders get their own upgraded menu.
Copra, tied to 2026 James Beard-nominated restaurateurs Srijith Gopinathan and Ayesha Thapar, is expected to serve chicken kari dosas, Mysore masala dosas and butter chicken basmati rice bowls. New Nob Hill fine dining restaurant Naides will bring Filipino festival fare, including barbecue pork and garlic rice bowls, beef tongue skewers and lobster lumpia.
The festival’s ultra-premium Golden Gate Club, designed by Ken Fulk, is again positioned as the most indulgent way to eat through the weekend.
Guests will have access to complimentary menus from Tyler Florence of Miller & Lux, James Beard Award finalist and “Top Chef” alum Melissa King, and Dana Younkin and Nancy Oakes of Boulevard, along with expanded service from the Caviar Co., dedicated golf cart transportation services, front-of-stage viewing and curated cocktails.
Fans enjoy food during Outside Lands in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on Aug. 9, 2024. The festival’s 2026 food and drink lineup will feature 100 Bay Area restaurants. (Jessica Christian/The Chronicle)
Drinks remain a major part of the Outside Lands experience, with Wine Lands returning to McLaren Pass. California producers include Auteur, Cakebread Cellars, Merriam and Seppi joining names such as Aperture, Marine Layer, Pax Wines and Turley Wine Cellars. VIP reserve pours are expected from wineries including Ashes & Diamonds, Kosta Browne, Roederer Estate, Scribe and Clos du Val.
Beer Lands, curated by Dave McLean, will add the Leopard Mark and Wondrous to a Northern California-heavy roster that includes Bear Republic, Cellarmaker, Ghost Town, North Coast and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Beer Sessions, the festival’s brewer conversation series, is also set to return.
Cocktail Magic will once again transform Lindley Meadow into six themed bar worlds, with drinks such as a Parmesan Espresso Martini, made with vodka, black pepper, butter-washed espresso, coffee liqueur and parmesan foam, and the Karl the Fogcutter, a rum drink with pineapple, orgeat, amontillado sherry and bay laurel saline.
There will also be more grab-and-go sweets this year with Parachute Bakery and Tano debuting pastry carts around the park. Items such as passionfruit croissant cubes, yuzu-black sugar pastries, ube cream salt bread and sesame toffee chocolate chip cookies are among the tasty offerings.
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This article originally published at Outside Lands’ 2026 food lineup goes big on S.F. classics, chef collabs and VIP perks.