NOTE EMBARGOED UNTIL 10 A.M. TUESDAY, APRIL 2
It may be known as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, but it’s also a celebration of food culture with innovative chefs, trendy restaurants, international fare and celebrated up and coming places joining the food lineup every year.
This year more than 65 curated restaurants and at least a couple of hidden bars will be spread throughout the festival grounds serving everything from Tijuana-style tacos by beloved Tacos 1986 to the always crowd-pleasing Szechuan garlic noodles from Bang Bang Noodles to seasonal California soul cuisine from award-winning restaurant Post & Beam to higher end pizzas, smash burgers, vegan dishes and even fancy sit-down dinners prepared by celebrity chefs.
“There are so many experiences that are part of Coachella. To me the food is part of the overall experience. Food is part of our everyday life and if we don’t come to the table with that then we’re really missing something. It’s what people expect and what I would want to see as a patron coming to Coachella,” said Adrian Garcia, the food and beverage director for Goldenvoice festivals whose job it is to put together the food and drink lineup for the festival.
Garcia and his team spend a lot of time visiting restaurants, checking social media for what’s hot at the moment and reaching out to established chefs to come up with an eclectic blend of food. And just like the musical lineup is anchored by headliners, there are heavy food hitters on his list.
“You always want to give the fans those festival favorites like the Spicy Pie and stuff like that. But you also want to get those places that people haven’t yet tried around town,” he said.
Here’s a taste of what’s coming to Coachella this year.
The VIP menu
VIP ticket holders will not only get access to their own areas but also their own food with some of the most exciting vendors setting up their kitchens in the exclusive spots. Among the food vendors in the 12 Peaks VIP area will be The Last Pizza, which is a collaboration with Prince Street Pizza and singer Grimes. They’ll be serving a thin spicy pie drizzled with hot honey. This area will also house the widely popular Bang Bang Noodles, Tacos 1986 and people can grab a Banh Mi from modern Vietnamese kitchen My Lai while sipping on Ethiopian coffee from Samra Origins, which is a collaboration between Blue Bottle Coffee and The Weeknd. On the other side of the field some of the vendors at the VIP Rose Garden will include modern Chinese food from MìLà, which will be serving soup dumplings and noodles as well as Love Hour, a burger joint making crispy smash burgers.
Indio Central Market
With its many food vendors, shady grounds, and lots of places to sit, the Indio Central Market is always a busy hub at Coachella. This year it returns with 15 restaurants including Chef Roy Choi’s revolutionary taco truck food Kogi. A must-try here are the Loaded Korean BBQ Fries. The Central Market is also where Chef Kasem Saengsawang of Farmhouse Thai Kitchen will be serving Volcano Cup noodles topped with fried chicken and where people can get Sumo Dogs, which mix Japanese and American flavors in a bun, and sweets from Happy Ice from Los Angeles. “Not only is it a delicious cold treat but it’s a gorgeous presentation as well. I can’t wait to see those roaming around the site,” Garcia said, referring to Happy Ice. Drinkers who don’t want to get drunk can get a mocktail from The New Bar, which will be coming to the festival for the second time with a large menu of alcohol-free mixed drinks.
The Speakeasies
One of the festival’s most popular pastimes is trying to find the various themed hidden speakeasies that offer high-end cocktails and a place to chill. “I love the speakeasies because you give people something to search for, you give people something they want to show their friends that they found,” Garcia said. Since the fun part is finding the speakeasies Garcia wasn’t spilling the beans about how many will be there and of course where they would be. But expect to see the return of New York based PDT (Please Don’t Tell) and Sonny’s by Attaboy, an ’80s-themed, Miami Vice-inspired bar. “Finding them is really all about being willing to explore the site. Things move every year, we have to have some fun with it. There may be things in weird corners where you don’t expect anything,” he said.
Fancy sit-downs
Aperol Spritz is returning to Coachella for a second year and creating the Aperol Aperitivo Italiano experience inside the 12 Peaks VIP area. This sit-down table service meal is a collaboration between Chef Samuele Silvestri of Terrazza Aperol in Venice and Carvingblock. Reservations are required for this sit-down dinner between 4 and 7 p.m. each day of the festival during both weekends. “I’m definitely looking forward to what they bring and what they create in this Italian kid of oasis,” Garcia said. But the biggest sit down dinner will once again be the Outstanding In The Field dinners at the Rose Garden VIP are. This is where for $350 per person, about 200 people sit at a long long table for a four-course farm-to-table dinner created by different chefs each day of the festival. This year chefs include Burt Bakman of SLAB barbecue restaurant in Pasadena, Ilan Hall of Ramen Hood at Grand Central Market in Los Angeles and Gabe Kennedy of Checker Hall in Highland Park.
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