I’m still bopping my head from the long weekend, what an incredible lineup of music (and food, hello!). Outside Lands completely rocked: it felt pretty special to be able to see D’Angelo and the Vanguard, Tame Impala, Django Django, Caribou, Hot Chip, and of course sing along to Elton John. Watching people perform live is such a game changer—newish discoveries (for me) like Dan Deacon, First Aid Kit, and Leon Bridges fully charmed.
A special shout-out to 4505 Meats for their insanely good cheeseburger, the pastrami cheese fries from Wise Sons, and the spicy Japanese-style tater tots from Nojo! Festival food at its finest. Love seeing all the La Cocina businesses there too. And bless Spicy Pie for always having a piping hot slice of cheese pizza ready for you at the end of the night—that thing saved me Sunday night. Thanks, good buddy.
I’m always happy to nab a Sierra Nevada Outside Lands Saison from Beer Lands and had some rather good cocktails too—go SF. Wine Lands will take all your money (the markup was pretty crazy), but at least you’re not spending it on crap wine, which is often the case at other festivals. (I’d like to request more sparkling wine throughout the festival next year, thanks for listening, Ranger Dave!)
Outside Lands sets quite the example for how a music festival can be. The CamelBak water stations are brilliant—anything to avoid more plastic water bottles on this planet, seriously. Sure, some of the 60,000-plus people can behave pretty badly (people, pick up your trash, come on now) and I felt like the cigarette smoking was a lot worse this year (people, quit while you’re ahead), but I also saw a fair amount of kindness and courtesy too, so not all is lost with this world. Every night, I was quite in awe of the fact I could pedal my bike home from such a massive event in our beautiful park in just 20 minutes. Pure delight. Can’t wait to see who and what is on deck for next year! I’ll have my pics all edited and posted for you by Friday—too much going on at the moment, oy.
This weekend, it’s time for the next big festival: the SF Street Food Festival, which will be in its new Dogpatch location at Pier 70. Take a look at our recent recaps here and here for all the latest, and don’t forget the five-course spit roast on Saturday night! There are still some passports left, too, hop to it. See you there!
One last thing that made me chuckle: if you have been following the Chef’s Table series on Netflix, you’ll crack up at this send-up—I did!
Chow for now! Marcia Gagliardi
Outside Lands lunch: the spicy Japanese-style tater tots from Nojo and my $20 glass of Scharffenberger sparkling rosé (cough). Photo: © tablehopper.com. View tablehopper Newsletter from Tuesday, Aug 11 2015
