This year’s Karl the Fog added to the mystique and magic as thousands of people flocked to music, food and drink in Golden Gate Park at Outside Lands. And although prices got even higher for good eats in a post-pandemic market, so too was their high quality.
OSL pioneered culinary and drink excellence for festivals globally since launching in 2008. Today its themed sections include “Wine Lands,” “Beer Lands,” and “Cocktail Magic,” which features our pioneering local talent, as do the 96 local restaurants serving more than 700 dishes. Almost all of those creations come from minority- and female-led restaurateurs and chefs.
Outside Lands is as much for food-and-drink lovers as it is for music fans. Edible highlights are many but here are my top seven on the ground for 2023 — but good news for us locals is we can get these bites and more from all these spots year-round:
1. Horn Barbecue’s Brisket Chopped Cheese Sandwich
While I was disappointed that the great Horn Barbecue’s burnt ends sandwiches never made it to the festival, though listed on the menu and press release, I was so not disappointed in Matt Horn’s killer brisket chopped cheese sandwiches. From what I’ve dubbed since day one (with all the national accolades following) THE greatest pitmaster and barbecue in the West, Horn Barbecue already delivers brisket and beyond to compete with many of the very best BBQ masters I’ve visited in multiple BBQ research road trips across the South and Texas.
This spring, Horn and team launched a trailer on the back patio of their barbecue joint (where lines are ever long for ‘que), serving this killer sandwich and more. The brisket chopped cheese sando recalls a great Philly cheesesteak, another one of my countless food obsessions I’ve studied at under-the-radar spots in Philly. Horn’s sando is their superb brisket trimmings, rich in beef tallow and butter, with American and provolone cheeses, caramelized onions and if you get the “dirty” version, as I did, lush house Horn sauce. It’s served in Philadelphia’s famed Amoroso’s rolls. With Cocktail Magic cocktails and a concert, this sandwich was my happiest edible moment all weekend.
2. Reem’s Pali Cali Sumac Chicken Wrap
Ever since Palestinian-Syrian chef Reem Assil (my Time Out interview with her in 2018) opened her first Arab bakery in Oakland’s Fruitvale area in 2017, I’ve deeply appreciated her heartwarming Arab baked goods and dishes, now served from her San Francisco Mission District flagship and Ferry Building shop. Leave it to Assil and team to deliver one of the festival’s best bites this year in seemingly simple form. The Pali Cali sumac chicken wrap may sound like “just” a wrap, but every detail is done with quality and flavor, from tender, fall-apart chicken, to their housebaked, 12 inch, za’atar spice-covered flatbread. Layered with caramelized onions, pickled onions and arugula, it was bursting with flavor as it was also nurturing, filling and healthy.
3. Peaches Patties’ Jamaican Beef Patties
With a catering flagship in SoMa and a Ferry Plaza Building stall since January 2023, I wrote about Peaches Patties from chef-owner and SF-native Shani Jones as a rare standout for Jamaican food in SF. Tributing her mother, Peaches, Jones’ signature patties were launched via La Cocina’s incredible incubator program in 2014, showing up at the festival since 2019. Jamaican beef patties were the way to go, but the team was also serving her jerk chicken wings, fried plantains and housemade sorrel (hibiscus juice). Those flaky savory pie pockets (the patties) were warm, nurturing beacons in the fog.
4. Jo’s Modern Thai’s Pork Laab Burger
I don’t like to repeat but when one turns out festival food this unique and good, it must be called out. I named Oakland’s female chef-helmed Jo’s Modern Thai a top OSL eats last year for their drunken Thai noodles with brisket, which were back this year (my review of the restaurant here). But chef Intu-on Kornnawong’s makrut lime-laced pork laab burgers were cooked to perfection this year vs. 2022’s dry festival version that didn’t compare to the restaurant’s rendition. They’ve got it dialed in now and those tender, aromatic pork burgers transported me back to my months in Thailand in the Polo Field of GG Park.
5. alaMar Dominican Kitchen’s Jerk Chicken Nachos
After nine years as alaMar Kitchen & Bar, Bravo TV’s Top Chef alumni Nelson German (Season 18) closed his beloved seafood destination and just reopened June 30 in Uptown Oakland as alaMar Dominican Kitchen, tributing his Dominican Republic roots growing up in Washington Heights in NYC. Thankfully, we got a little taste of this Oaktown newcomer at OSL with his jerk chicken nachos (there were also beef and vegan versions). While it’s not on the menu at the restaurant, this playful jerk chicken spin served on a giant chip was blessedly light — compared to a lot of heavy festival foods — yet flavor-packed and gratifying with cheesewhiz-esque (but gourmet-ified) cheese sauce, avocado mousse and microgreens atop the chicken.
6. Pink Onion Pink Alarm Fire Pizza
I sure was excited about Shuggie’s Trash Pie & Natural Wine being at OSL for the first time this year, but sadly, the dried out, bland slices I got tasted nothing like the addictive, unique pies at their Mission District restaurant. Though I recently had an awful delivery experience with Pink Onion (they delivered only sides and left out the main course pizzas we ordered), this year they held it down for most gratifying slice at the festival (thank God also for Mozzeria’s deaf-owned Neapolitan truck at OSL near “Cocktail Magic”). Pink Mission’s Mission District restaurant has been a sleeper hit for pizza since 2017. Their Magic Mushroom and other slices were available at OL, but it’s their happily red onion-heavy, pepperoni, chili pepper and garlic Pink Alarm Fire slice that perked up a crowd-weary final day at OSL.
7. Kitiya’s Pad Thai
San Francisco Thai catering great, Kitiya, served Thai tater tots and pad Thai at OSL. Chef Kitiya “Kitty” Ditpare is another of the many food businesses from women of color the great La Cocina launched in SF. While I’ve had better pad Thai, these were still “hit the spot” noodles impressively served at high volume with vibrant heat and a lime wedge providing a welcome acid perk. Plenty of bean sprouts and ground peanuts imparted texture, while add-ons of shrimp, chicken, beef brisket curry or tofu brought the protein.
My biggest critique
Though it saved paper and minimized trash not having paper maps this year, it was a huge inconvenience for those of us focused on food kiosks as the OSL app did not allow you to map out food by sections of the park, only to click on every single kiosk one-by-one to try to find where a food vendor was located, which wasn’t searchable.
And to drink …
“Cocktail Magic” had a needed, more expansive location in Lindley Meadow this year, though I missed the more intimate grove it used to be in that now houses Wine Lands. But with the crowds that descended on the cocktail stations and the great aforementioned lineup at the “Cocktail Magic” stage, it was a needed expansion for us spirits and cocktail hounds.
Showcasing six themed bars this year plus drinks from SF’s Trick Dog and Oakland’s The Kon-Tiki, I do miss having more local bars represented at each station. But curated by Superfly co-founder Kerry Black, with cocktails crafted by local bar great and friend Ethan Terry of upcoming The Halfway Club, we’re in good hands for the tough job of creating cocktails that can be large batched for thousands of people. His hazelnut espresso martini won me over with a hit of Fernet Branca and balanced sweetness, while The Kon-Tiki did right by a Daiquiri with mint and a blessedly grassy, rhum agricole-esque rum I could happily taste amid right-on sweet-sour balance.
The “Cocktail Magic” stage continued just a bit of what OSL’s culinary “GastroMagic” stage did in past years, hosting chefs like Gregory Gourdet of Portland’s great modern Haitian restaurant, Kann, and our own chef Brenda Buenviaje of the great New Orleans Brenda’s restaurants in SF for the annual Beignets & Bounce, plus a killer daily set from hip-hop turntablists, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, local DJ legends Qbert, Shortkut and D-Styles with “wow” special guest appearances each day from the likes of Cut Chemist, Dan the Automator and Del the Funky Homosapien.
“Wine Lands” is now in that enchanting California cypress and eucalyptus trees grove off McLaren Pass that formerly housed “Cocktail Magic.” Going strong since 2008 pioneering elevated festival wine experience, “Wine Lands” features just a few of our endless (and again) pioneering wealth of California wineries, NorCal being the region that put New World wine on the map since the 1970s.
Featuring 25 wineries pouring over 100 different wines and a special bubbles section, there were wine geek and natural sips like Martha Stoumen, Scribe and Field Recordings, elegant-hip locals like Ashes & Diamonds, to collectors favorites like Kosta Browne, plus sake (wish there was more brands, maybe handpicked by the U.S. first sake store for over 20 years here in SF, True Sake?) and thankfully, non-alcoholic wines. Best new wine discovery was Joseph-Jibril wines from nearby Healdsburg in Sonoma County. I met winemaker owners Robert Joseph and Jaam-Jibril at our media tent, pouring their blessedly lean, acidic Chardonnay, Pinot and Cab Franc carbonic chilled red and elegant Cabernet Franc.
Admiral Maltings’ Dave McLean (my 2018 Time Out interview with him here) continues to keep Beer Lands 30 California breweries lineup strong, from LA’s (Inglewood) black-owned Crowns & Hops (which I’ve loved since tasting their beer at an SF restaurant a couple years ago), to local SF favorites like Korean-owned Dokkaebier and ever-delightful Laughing Monk Brewing, alongside newcomers like Grass Valley’s BrewBilt Brewing Company.
What about the festival? My final thoughts:
From a rousing Foo Fighters show (with surprise guest Michael Bublé popping up out of the audience), to an equally spirited Janelle Monáe set, the musical lineup was varied and diverse. Crowds were at peak again, with Friday being the lighter day and Saturday the most packed.
Virginia Miller is a San Francisco-based food & drink writer.
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