The Best West Coast Food Events of 2024, From Coachella and BottleRock to Vegas’ Revelry at the Wynn and More
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When the next South Beach Wine and Food Festival rolls into Miami in spring 2025, a few things are guaranteed: Epic levels of traffic, Food Network talent hanging out everywhere, television and movie stars hawking their spirits and canned cocktails and celebrity chefs teasing their new restaurants.
While the main purpose of the gathering is to benefit the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Florida International University (raising more than $37 million) — through brunches, lunches, dinners, chef gatherings, cookouts, master classes, red carpets and tributes — partying, gossiping, hamming and the chance to hang out with the pop culture characters of the cooking world in the wild is what insiders and the public show up for year after year.
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With the food festival world raging in popularity, February’s SOBEWFF was the shotgun start to a full culinary calendar that includes events up and down the West Coast all summer. And after a five-year hiatus, Pebble Beach Wine & Food returned to the Monterey Peninsula with a compendium of chef and vintner collaborations and more than 7,000 attendees. The toast of California’s central coast since 2008, Pebble hosted two daytime grand tasting events, 150 wine and spirits producers and 100 chefs from around the country.
While foodies have to wait until next year to participate in the next SOBEWFF or PBFW, food festivals will pack the social calendar over the next few months. Below, find some of the best West Coast culinary events to taste this year, followed by a recap of this year’s South Beach and Pebble Beach food festivities.
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (April 12–14 and 19–21)
The landmark West Coast music festival features 65 restaurants and bars as well as food and artist collaborations. Within the 12 Peaks VIP area, celebrate the launch of Grimes’ new song with DJ Anyma “Taratata” with a slice of “The Last Pizza,” a collaboration with Prince Street Pizza, a Spicy Spring drizzled with hot honey. Also find a selection of caffeinated beverages created by Blue Bottle Coffee and Abel Tesfaye (aka the Weeknd) from their collaborative coffee line, Samra Origins.
Aperol returns to Coachella with the new Aperol Terrazza also located within the 12 Peaks VIP area and the Aperol Aperitivo Italiano, a golden hour experience, in collaboration with Chef Samuele Silvestri, executive chef of Terrazza Aperol in Venice, and visualized by CARVINGBLOCK, a culinary storytelling house that crafts unparalleled hospitality experiences. Postmates returns to Coachella with the first-ever Sauce Bar, where VIP ticketholders can grab some fries or tots from Irv’s Burgers and load them up with sauces from various L.A. restaurants like Bludso’s BBQ, Irv’s Burgers, Monty’s Good Burger and Prime Pizza (plus a limited-edition vegan ghost chile Sriracha Secret Sauce by Postmates x Benny Blanco). There are even signature “saucetails.” After providing the festival’s first fully non-alcoholic bar, Coachella welcomes back The New Bar, a booze-free bottle shop based in Los Angeles. The New Bar will bring a traditional full bar set up, stocked with alcohol-free spirits, wine, beer and RTDs, as well as NA cocktails.
BottleRock (Napa Valley, May 24 to 26)
BottleRock, presented by JaM Cellars, presents the perfect blend of summertime music festival and food festival with restaurants, wineries, and craft breweries and distilleries. Pearl Jam, Ed Sheeran, Stevie Nicks and Maná headline while attendees taste more than 100 vintages and varietals from labels such as Caymus, Duckhorn, Cardinale, Schramsberg, Blackbird Vineyards and Silverado, among others. Food vendors are just as stellar with valley favorites such as Mustards Grill, Slanted Door, La Toque, PRESS Restaurant, Oenotri, La Calenda, Morimoto Napa, Moro, Compline Restaurant, Oakville Grocery and Kitchen Door.
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants (Las Vegas, June 5)
Las Vegas has been without a major food event since Bon Appetit’s Uncork’d departed in 2019. In early June, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants will host its awards in North America for the second time ever with a week’s worth of events (thought-leadership forum #50BestTalks; the 50 Best Signature Sessions series of collaborative dining events open to the public; a Chefs’ Feast showcasing Las Vegas fine dining, all culminating in the awards ceremony) in Las Vegas at The Venetian, Resorts World and Wynn Las Vegas.
Leading up to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony, Janaína Torres of A Casa do Porco in São Paulo has been named The World’s Best Female Chef 2024. Other special awards will be announced in advance of the ceremony. An activist, sommelier and chef, Torres was named Latin America’s Best Female Chef as part of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023 and is now recognized for her contribution on a global scale, including working with São Paulo’s government to train school cooks to help improve the nutrition of 1.8 million children in four years. During the pandemic, she mobilized thousands of Brazilian chefs and hospitality workers to pressure the government for vital financial support for the industry.
Revelry at Wynn (Las Vegas, June 5 to 8)
While details for The World’s 50 Best’s awards, dinners and seminars won’t be announced until April 16, Wynn Las Vegas has revealed that it will do its debut food festival, Revelry, in early June. Chefs, vintners, mixologists and entertainment converge night after night during one-time-only collaborations. For lovers of fine Cantonese cuisine, the East Meets Best Dinner on Wednesday, June 5 pairs the chef from Wynn Las Vegas’ Wing Lei and the resort’s executive pastry chef with three of the top culinary talents from Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace.
For those who count their stars, The 50 Best Signature Session Icons Dinner Thursday, June 6, features an epic lineup with Eleven Madison Park’s Daniel Humm; Atomix’s Junghyun Park; Thomas Keller; Single Thread’s Chef Kyle Connaughton; and Dominique Crenn, among others. It all ends in The Feast on June 8, a grand tasting that traverses from the Middle East to Japan and from Tulum to the American West. Try prime cuts from Taylor Sheridan’s Four Sixes Ranch and meet L.A. culinary talent such as Moo’s Craft Barbecue’s Andrew and Michelle Muñoz, Flouring Cake Shop Pastry Chef Heather Wong, Dunsmoor Pastry Chef Erika Chan, YouTube sensation Yakitoriguy; and imported from New Orleans, Chef Alon Shaya, who just debuted a culinary residency at Wynn with his pop-up Safta 1964.
Eeeeeatscon (Los Angeles, June 8 and 9)
Food discovery platform The Infatuation‘s Eeeeeatscon presented by Chase Sapphire returns to Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar on June 8 and 9. Headliners include Chrissy Teigen; Sofia Vergara with her son, restaurateur and television host Manolo Gonzalez Vergara; food critic and philanthropist Keith Lee; chef David Chang; and comedian and actress Nicole Byer.
Eeeeeatscon is built in the spirit of a music festival with 25-plus local and national restaurants that carry buzz, including Lucali (New York City), KG BBQ (Austin), Community Goods, Two Hommés, Za Za Zà x Loreto (festival-exclusive collab!), Bar Chelou, Tacos Los Cholos, Le Great Outdoor, Amiga Amore, Kuya Lord and more. The Infatuation continues to expand its celebrity partnerships, with talent like Selena Gomez through editorial and social collaboration as well. Eeeeatscon now operates in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City.
Seen, Heard and Tasted at SOBEWFF
SOBEWFF’s wizard is Lee Brian Schrager, a Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits executive and the festival’s founder and executive director, who has been making this event magic for 23 years. He also wears the same title for NYCWFF (in October) and curates talent for the Nassau Paradise Island Wine & Food Festival, which featured Martha Stewart, Andrew Zimmern, José Andrés, Robert Irvine and Nobu Matsuhisa during its second effort in March. In Miami, Schrager admittedly only gets to about 20 of the 120 events over four nights and to accomplish that strategically stacks his schedule, always making it a point to hit events that include multiple boldface names and the private chef parties, where many of the best moments unfold.
The Oscars moment at SOBEWFF is the annual Tribute Dinner, presented by HexClad Cookware, this year honoring Massimo Bottura (three-Michelin-star Osteria Francescana, Gucci Osteria and Miami’s soon-to-open Torno Subito) and Campari Group chairman Luca Garavoglia. A pantheon of Spanish and French master chefs Mauro Colagreco, Albert Adria, Jordi Roca and Alain Ducasse all cooked in their honor. The city is awaiting the debut of Bottura’s restaurant which has been teased for more than a year. “One of those chefs would have been good. Five of them were amazing,” Schrager says, noting that 2025’s honoree will be Dominique Crenn.
A Bizarre New Show
At an invite-only chef’s party at W South Beach, Andrew Zimmern revealed details to friends about his new project — an AI dating show where the contestants must choose whether they want to fall in love with a human or have a situationship with a bot.
Miami’s Mother Wolf Is Coming Soon
Returning for the first time since 2018, L.A.’s Evan Funke (Funke, Felix, Mother Wolf) participated in SOBEWFF with a dinner and a master class. He opened Mother Wolf in Las Vegas in December and Tre Dita in Chicago in March He will debut a third Mother Wolf in Miami’s Design District this year.
“Miami is rapidly becoming a magnet for serious restaurants and chefs, a lot like Vegas it has become a bastion of hospitality,” Funke tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Even with almost six restaurants, Funke says there is no shortage of inspiration. “The culture of Italy is so deep and so diverse, that I could open a restaurant every single year and still not run out of stories to tell. Italy is my fountain, it’s a constant source of inspiration, it’s a constant source of love. It is my North Star.”
Earlier this year Giada De Laurentiis — who signed a deal to develop an unscripted series for Amazon Studios when she departed the Food Network after 21 years — revealed that one of her new projects will involve Funke. While details are mostly still under wraps, he shares that the show they are developing “is going to be restaurant related and it’s going to be intense because the restaurant industry is intense. What we do in the restaurant industry daily is production, it just so happens my medium is food. I want this show to be an experience for people. I want them to feel something.”
Jon and Vinny Go to Riyadh
L.A.’s Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo (Son of a Gun, Jon & Vinny’s, Helen’s and Cookbook) teamed up with their friends Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer (Miami’s Michelin-lauded Boia de and Walrus Rodeo) for their return to SOBEWFF.
“Jon and I are both from Florida,” Dotolo says. “South Beach has a special place in our hearts. It is where we started working for Michelle Bernstein in 1999, who is one of our biggest mentors.” Ironically that was six years before Jon and Vinny starred in the short-lived 2007 Food Network show 2 Dudes Catering. Dotolo says they have no plans to go back to television after that cringe-y turn.
“It was probably one of the most challenging experiences of my career. We learned quickly that it wasn’t our calling. However, what came out of it was Animal and that was the success that broke us into the scene,” Dotolo says of their seminal restaurant, which closed in 2023. “Meyer worked in the Animal kitchen and even dabbled at Son of a Gun. Then, he went to work at Eleven Madison Park. One of the most fulfilling things for Jon and I is to have people out there who are part of our lineage and history. I couldn’t be prouder of them. Boia is such an amazing restaurant.”
Shook and Dotolo are now opening a fifth Jon and Vinny’s in the Valley; focusing on their Baked by Jon & Vinny’s frozen pizza line in partnership with Live Nation, available at select venues; as well as expanding to Jon & Vinny’s to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this month after a successful pop-up in 2022.
Miami expansion is still in the cards. “We had announced we were coming and secured a property, and then it fizzled out on us. We are looking,” he says.
Riding Miami’s Michelin Wave
Giangrandi and Meyer, two break stars of Miami’s Michelin wave, have no plans to expand outside the Bravo Supermarket Plaza in Little Haiti where both Boia de and Walrus Rodeo are located.
“When we came to Miami, we wanted to help participate in growing the food scene. We’re invested in continuing that trajectory,” Giangrandi says.
“We only said yes to [a second location], because it was an opportunity within our strip mall parking lot. We walked back and forth between the two restaurants. Another market is not in the cards now,” Meyer says.
The duo, who are also married as well as business partners, welcome the influx of big-name celebrity chefs like Bottura and Gordon Ramsay to the city. “If nobody came to Miami and nobody left Miami, Miami would still be where it was eight years ago. Now there are these two extremes of small owner-operated places and big out-of-town operators. Some people like both and go to both,” Meyer says.
Jeremy Ford Heads Out West
Breaking the West Coast to East Coast migration pattern that Funke, Shook and Dotolo are all part of, Top Chef season 13 winner and Miami Michelin-star Jeremy Ford of Stubborn Seed will soon raise his flag at Resorts World in Las Vegas this year.
“There are a million places we could land, but I don’t think anywhere else besides Resorts World would have been the perfect spot,” he says, noting that his focus right now is building a team that conveys passion and carries the “Stubborn bug.”
Another thing Ford is figuring out is how to incorporate produce from his newly acquired farm into everything he does.
“Back in July, I put my life savings into the idea. I just bought a $40,000 tractor. It has been the most rewarding experience of my entire life,” he says. “I pulled dragon tongue beans off the vine the other day that my daughter and I planted. Not only were they the best-tasting bean I’ve ever had, but it was cool that my daughter was part of that process,” he says.
Ford soon hopes to be hosting events, farm-to-table dinners and cooking classes. “It’s going to be a special place of learning, creating,” he says. “I’m bringing deliveries three or four days per week to Stubborn—Japanese baby turnips, radishes, carrots, beautiful arugula, and flowers for plating, Sungold tomatoes. We’re producing enough right now to sustain one restaurant completely and maybe a little extra. But once we start getting into the ground out here, I’ll start selling produce to friends around the city.”
Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon’s Next Big Projects
Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon of Philadelphia’s Kalaya made her debut at SOBEWFF after being named the 2023 mid-Atlantic Best Chef by the James Beard Foundation. After retiring from a long career as a flight attendant (she previously had an Italian restaurant in Bangkok), Suntaranon created Kalaya in 2019 as a hobby.
The Fishtown-neighborhood restaurant features two kinds of intricate dumplings that have completely enraptured visitors: kanom jeeb nok, filled with cod and radish and shaped like birds; and shaw muang, made of ground chicken and Thai chili, wrapped in a flower. She says the kitchen turns out 700 pieces. “In Thailand, you cannot find any of these dumplings in the restaurant, because it’s time-consuming and labor-intensive. I’m very proud of the craftsmanship and the time that we put toward our food.” Kalaya uses French cooking techniques to execute the complexity of southern Thai cuisine. Suntaranon likes her curries to be colorful like her wardrobe of Issey Miyake and Yayoi Kusama.
The secret to her success: “My husband supported my dream and I did everything without any expectation but I put more than 100 percent of my heart into it. I don’t have to worry about whether I am going to make it or am I not going to make it. I took a big risk without thinking it was a risk and I have the freedom of being creative. It is different from the other young people that get into this business because they need to make a living or they need to have a job.”
Later this year she will release a cookbook written and edited by Francis Lam, host of The Splendid Table podcast and editor-in-chief at Clarkson Potter, the cookbook division within Penguin Random House and she also had an unnamed Netflix documentary in the works.
Delilah Docks in Brickell
Another L.A. import who just took up residence in Miami’s Brickell Key, Delilah from The h.wood Group participated for the first time in SOBEWFF. The East Coast version of the West Hollywood restaurant opened during Art Basel Miami Beach with chef Daniel Roy at the helm. In addition to being the guardian of Delilah staples like the chicken tenders, Roy, who has lived in South Florida for 15 years, “leans into Miami flavors.”
“In the early stages of discussing the menu, one of the chefs mentioned making a Cuban sandwich … in turn, we did my interpretation of Cuban in a bite, the Cubano Fritters,” Roy says. Other only-in-Miami highlights are the stone crab salad, crispy confit and suckling pig.
In that vein, Delilah Miami recently unveiled Coco Loco, Latin jazz music every Wednesday with sequin-clad dancers and the Coco Loco Latin Band with drums, bass, cello and brass instruments, On the plate and in the glass, Hiramasa Ceviche and the Cafecito Martini — a Latin spin on the espresso martini — turn up the experience. Unique to this Delilah, there is an outdoor terrace and this is the only Brickell restaurant with boat slips — Miami diners love to moor on site.
Chefs with Paddles
Two annual events once again called the culinary elite into friendly competitions that have nothing to do with cooking. By day, Whispering Angel teamed up with Tara Bernstein and Hunter Fieri for the second annual Celebrity Chef Pickleball Tournament at Miami Beach Golf Club on Feb. 24. Adrianne Calvo, Marcus Samuelsson, Jet Tila, and Molly Yeh were among the players. By night at Miami Beach Edition, Jean-Georges Vongerichten hosted the seventh annual Ping Pong & Pizzas. Guy Fieri, Amanda Freitag, Robert Irvine, Marc Murphy, Michelle Bernstein, Todd English, Michael Schwartz and more challenged each other to fierce matches of ping pong. Guy Fieri made it rain on event staff by tipping with $100 bills.
FoodieCon Creates Clicks
Integrating the force of social media food content creators into the food-festival universe, FoodieCon returned to SOBEWFF for its second year with a happy hour hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, followed by a dinner with Robert Irvine, Jake Cohen and Olivia Tiedemann. That programming preceded an all-day main event with panels, brand activations, meet-and-greets, book signings, tastings, and more starring personalities such as the King of Sandwiches” Owen Han, The Pasta Queen Nadia Caterina Munno, hardware engineer-turned-culinary-creator Albert Niahvinski and New York City Fire Escape food content creator Joe Vadakkedam.
FoodieCon expanded this past fall to the New York City Wine & Food Festival, where it was sponsored by Instagram.
Celebs Hawk Their Booze
On the celeb-endorsed liquor scene, The Rolling Stones’ new Crossfire Hurricane Rum, in partnership with Universal Music Group and Socio Ventures, made its first Florida event appearance. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day represented their Four Walls new Irish American Whiskey and Kate Upton made the rounds with Vosa Spirits canned cocktails. Elizabeth Banks supported her Archer Roose canned wine with a sundowner cocktail party and poolside chat.
The Buzz on the Beach
Perennially, 1 Hotel South Beach is where some top culinary talents and food-loving guests stay when they want a close-yet-away-from-it-all respite. Celebrating almost a decade in Miami, 1 Hotel South Beach recently began re-envisioning its food and beverage program with Tala Beach, a beachfront restaurant, bar and lounge, featuring daybeds and seating enclaves with overstuffed pillows for lounging under the palm trees, feet in the sand. Take a pass through here during SOBEWFF and you never know who you might see hiding out. Additionally, the hotel’s rooftop restaurant WATR offers panoramic views of the ocean as the signature Japanese restaurant floats above the city.
Other West Coast Foodie Fêtes
Pebble Beach Wine & Food Triumphantly Returns
This year’s Pebble Beach Food & Wine kicked off Thursday, April 4, with a celebration of 25 James Beard Foundation-recognized culinary talents, hosted by Nancy Silverton and presented by HexClad, including 2024 Best Chef Finalist Jenner Tomaska from Chicago’s Esmé, 2022 Best Restaurant Finalist Wesley Avila from L.A.’s Angry Egret Dinette, 2022 Best Chef Semifinalist Keith Corbin of L.A.’s Alta Adams and California-cooking legend Jeremiah Tower. The 2023 Best Chef South semifinalist Valerie Chang from Miami’s Itamae won the attendee vote presented by the cookware brand’s CEO and co-founder Danny Winer. As the official cookware partner at Pebble Beach, HexClad cookware, knives, and aprons were seen throughout the weekend and in tow with their newest ambassador Silverton, who joins Gordon Ramsay in endorsing the product.
Where this festival pops the cork is in appeal to California and French wine connoisseurs with labels such as Bond, Piper-Heidsieck, Dom Pérignon, Krug, Laurent Perrier, Opus One and Promontory all participating. At Pebble, it is possible to drink five Bond crus for breakfast as winemakers and sommeliers open and pour super rare vintages. Maximilian Kast, master sommelier and director of Napa Valley’s Bond, and Master Sommelier Carlton McCoy, led the in-depth tasting of Bond’s Cabernet Sauvignon wines, which convey the distinct characters of their respective sites of origin. During the Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle Seminar, Michelle Defeo, president of Laurent-Perrier, led a vertical tasting of numbered iterations of the prestige Grand Siècle, featuring Grand Siècle Iteration No. 26 — named Wine of the Year in 2023 — as well as past iterations dating back three decades, including the not-yet-released Les Réserves Iteration No. 20.
Culinary highlights from the weekend included the “Legacy Unveiled: A Protégé Showcase Dinner featuring Rarities from Heitz Cellar Historic Stone Cellar Library Collection” with chefs including Tim Hollingsworth (L.A.’s Otium and B.J. Novak’s Chained), Aaron Bludorn and Cédric Vongerichten (Wayan & Ma·dé in New York City) cooking dishes inspired by their mentors with wines paired by McCoy. Thomas Keller protegé Hollingsworth presented a Liberty Farms Duck Breast with cherry, olive and onion; Bludorn, who is a protege of Daniel Boulud, served dungeness crab ravigote with uni, avocado, orange and endive; and Vongerichten, who is the son of Jean-Georges Vongerichten, wowed with grilled lamb chops with sugar snap peas, jalapeno sweet pea and black olive oil.
Saturday evening’s Michelin-Star Showcase featured Oceanside’s breakout Mexican restaurant Valle, helmed by Roberto Alcocer, which is only one of five restaurants in San Diego to capture a constellation.
Pebble Beach Food & Wine returns April 10-13, 2025.
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