Secret Food at Outside Lands

(El Garaage’s salsas)

BY TAMARA PALMER

I just heard the main stage at Outside Lands fire up from my bedroom, which is about a 15 minute walk away from the festival entrance in Golden Gate Park. I’m excited to soon head over for the 15th time! It’s the festival’s 16th year overall; the first year, 2008, was headlined by Radiohead, who I listened to from my room.

With close to 100 vendors, the food program has always been unrivaled to the extent that it’s almost always a disappointment eating at any other music festival. The depth and breadth of the offerings continually improves, and an incredible 94% of the participating creators this year are from minority or women-led restaurateurs and chefs.

I interviewed Outside Lands food and beverage director Tanya Kollar for 48 Hills last year and she told me that this job is “literally an obsession.” I love that there’s always a thoughtful mix of classics who return every year (hello, Charles Chocolates!), fresh pop-ups, restaurants that are about to open or have just debuted and may be hard to get into right now. As a local food writer, there’s always new chefs to learn about and meet and new ideas to try.

Kollar created a special addition this year called Bites of the Bay, a booklet of coupons that allows you to access and buy snack-sized menu items (Eater SF has a list of several highlights). Though this was sent out in a press release to the media, there hasn’t been much written about it outside of Eater’s story, and the way to actually get the booklet has changed at the last minute. So please share this post with your friends who are going to Outside Lands, especially if they are regulars who are looking for a new strategy to eat their way through it. I’ll also post pictures of the best items I try every night on my Instagram feed, if you’re looking for specific recommendations along the way.

The Bites of the Bay pass costs $20 and originally was going to be for sale online, but it’s now only available at a box office, so if you’re interested, you’ll want to stop and purchase this at the info booth near the windmill. See you out there!

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