Lifestyle
Inside Coachella’s Extravagant Four-Course Dinners
On Saturday night, as Charli XCX performed the hottest album of 2024 and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont spoke to young Clairo fans, about 300 people were eating frog legs and beef tongue inside the sweltering V.I.P. Rose Garden of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif.
The sold-out dinner, hosted by Outstanding in the Field — a roving restaurant of sorts known for white-table cloth meals in unexpected locations — has become one of the flashier options at Coachella, where the food has been steadily improving for years. It is the group’s 10th year at the festival, and they expect to host about 1,800 guests over the course of the festival’s two weekends.
“Most people are waiting for the schedule to come out to see who’s on the lineup for the shows and I’m always like, ‘Well, who’s the lineup for the chefs?’” said Diane Leeds, a frequent attendee who retired from a career in finance and now describes her lifestyle as nomadic.
At the hot, dusty desert festival, temperatures regularly break 100 degrees and it’s easy to spend a full day wordlessly waiting in traffic and bathroom lines with the other 125,000 daily attendees. Outstanding in the Field’s dinner offers a rare chance for cold drinks, comfortable chairs and friendly strangers.
The family-style, four-course dinners take place from 6 p.m. until about 8:30 p.m. and are prepared by different chefs each night. Each seat costs $350, which is a hefty price to tack on after buying a pricey festival pass that start at around $600 for general admission and $1,200 for V.I.P. access. But a ticket to the dinner also grants general admission attendees access to that V.I.P. section for the day, which includes air-conditioned restrooms and special food vendors like KazuNori, a popular chain of hand roll bars in Los Angeles.
“I’m here solo, and I thought it was a good opportunity to meet other people and just enjoy myself and get good food,” said Sarah McLamb, 40, who traveled from Seattle, where she works for the real estate website Zillow.
Every seat at the table was set with a mismatched colorful and ornate plates, complementing the roses that grew in the lush garden. Attendees sipped gin and grapefruit cocktails as they found a place to hunker down for the evening.
Saturday’s dinner was prepared by Diego Argoti, a Los Angeles-based chef known for hosting Estrano pasta pop-ups in city streets and creating Poltergeist, a popular restaurant inside a (now closed) Echo Park arcade. His staff included an eccentric mix of buzzy local chefs — like Carlos Jaquez, who runs a pop up called Birria Pa La Cruda, and Danny Rodriguez, the head chef at Echo Park’s Butchr Bar — and miscellaneous friends and family.
“My mom’s cooking with us,” Mr. Argoti said earlier in the day, wearing four thick braids and a bit of shimmering glitter on each temple. “We came to Coachella together when I was like 14 and snuck into Rage Against the Machine.”
With a reputation for crafting chaotic yet tasty dishes, Mr. Argoti’s menu included an endive and frog leg salad, a duck confit with hibiscus toum, grilled beef tongue with strawberry puttanesca and a pandan-flavored mochi cake. Each course came with a wine pairing or nonalcoholic alternative.
“I’ve almost created, like, a vanity culinary escape room,” he said. “Like, all right, cool, you paid this amount for this experience. Beautiful. But now we’re gonna have you eat frog legs and gizzards and something that is luxurious to me.”
Since guests can’t see what’s being served before they arrive at the dinner, Mr. Argoti’s menu naturally caught some diners a bit off guard. A handful of people walked out after the first course was served. (One woman said the salad was very good, although she didn’t want to try the frog legs.)
But many attendees said they were delighted by the unpredictable yet communal nature of the dinner. Taking place in a manicured garden that’s tucked next to the Mojave tent, the dinner comes with a list of local purveyors who provide the vegetables, meat and wine pairings each evening. As people dined on Saturday, David Retsky, a farmer from Thermal, Calif., who grew many of that night’s salad ingredients, walked individual diners through the greens and blossoms on their plate.
“If you’re a picky eater, it’d be hard to try the food,” said Lelna Gwet, 27. “If you’re not a picky eater, this is like a foodie in heaven. You have so many flavors at play here, and the farmers come to the table, which is amazing.”
Ms. Gwet, an electrical engineer from Washington, D.C., arrived with her sister, Mata, and one of their friends. By the end of the night, the three of them were chatting with people sitting nearby and adorning new friends with roll-on body glitter.
“This is what makes Outstanding in the Field outstanding,” Ms. Gwet said, as they finished glasses of wine.
Jim Denevan, the artist who founded of Outstanding in the Field, said that while he believes the dinner functions as a “social glue,” it was invited to Coachella in 2014 for another important reason: the festival needed more food choices.
“At that point, there were limited options at music festivals: Burrito, hot dog, burger, taco,” said Nic Adler, the vice president of festivals at Goldenvoice, who’s often credited for making music festival food more interesting and Instagram-able. “Quick food, that was it. No brands, no restaurants, very generic signage.”
Now, Coachella has more than 75 food vendors, including a $350 Nobu omakase experience and plenty of $20 burgers, sandwiches and baskets of loaded fries.
“To have these elevated chefs doing their craft, and the local farm ingredients with the farmers here walking along the table, it costs more than a slice of pizza,” said Mr. Denevan, 63. “But in a sense, it’s just choices among choices.”
And though a few dozen people left the dinner early to catch the end or start of various performances, which included Charli XCX and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, about half of the long table lingered after dessert to continue chatting with their tablemates.
“In the sea of however many people are here, you don’t have a conversation with any of them beyond like, ‘I’m sorry I bumped into you,’ or ‘excuse me,’” said Jonathan Wadell, who was at the dinner with his wife, Sarah-Sue Wadell. “So it’s nice to have a conversation here.”
Mr. Wadell, 46, and Ms. Wadell, 45, traveled to the festival from Santa Barbara to celebrate their 21st anniversary. They described the sit-down meal as a welcome break from the intense heat.
“It’s always fun to be out there, but this is a really nice respite,” Ms. Wadell added. “Now we’re ready to party.”
“By that she means watch a show, or an act, and then go out of here early, and go to bed,” Mr. Wadell added.
Anna Wood, 52, attended the dinners on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, with her partner, Glen Mason. The couple has come to Coachella from York, England, for the last three years, and the dinners are usually part of their itinerary.
“We met a couple from Palm Springs the first time we were here,” Mr. Mason, 63, said. “We stayed in touch with them and we see them every time we come to Coachella.”
As veterans, they’ve also become pretty good at shaking off the inevitable feeling of festival FOMO.
“It’s always got to be a balance,” Mr. Mason said. “Sometimes we miss somebody who we would like to see, but then there’s probably more benefit in having a delicious dinner with delicious wine.”
“Charli XCX we actually would have liked to have seen tonight,” he added, “but we’ve had those gorgeous frogs’ legs.”
While uncertainty lingers over improvements and timetables at LAX, the county’s second-busiest airport is on the brink of big changes.
The Hollywood Burbank Airport is due to replace its two terminals with a larger new terminal on Oct. 13. The $1.3-billion project will include 14 gates — the same number the airport has now. But the new structure will be a single terminal that’s about 50% larger than the airport’s current two-terminal layout.
In moving to a 355,000-square-foot terminal, officials say, the airport can give passengers more room and better technology while meeting safety and accessibility standards.
A rendering shows how Hollywood Burbank Airport is designed to look when its new terminal opens in October.
(Hollywood Burbank Airport)
The airport, built in 1930 and run by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, is favored by many local travelers as a simpler, faster alternative to Los Angeles International Airport. The Burbank airport’s site in the San Fernando Valley, however, has often put its leaders at odds with residents of surrounding suburban neighborhoods.
As it stands, the aged Burbank facility doesn’t meet current state seismic standards or Federal Aviation Administration design standards — which has prompted repeated safety warnings. Its nine resident airlines fly to about 30 nonstop destinations. The airport reported about 6.2 million arriving and departing passengers in 2025.
Airport officials say the new design increases the distance between the terminal and the nearest runway, currently as little as 257 feet, soon to be about 880 feet, bringing the airport into compliance with FAA standards.
Meanwhile at LAX, which reported 73.7 million passengers in 2025, the opening of a long-awaited SkyLink automated people mover (an electric train linking terminals to rail service and rental cars) has been delayed by technical and legal issues. In a June 15 report, the SkyLink contractor estimated that its public opening would need to wait until Oct. 6 or later. Asked for a revised timetable, an LAX spokesperson gave no dates, saying only that the airport is focused on “exhaustive testing of all tracks, signaling systems, and vehicles” to ensure safety and dependability.
A rendering shows how Hollywood Burbank Airport is expected to look after a new terminal opens in October.
(Hollywood Burbank Airport)
In Burbank, voters approved the airport terminal replacement project in 2016. Construction began in 2024. At the entrance, travelers will encounter a pair of 16-foot-tall sculptures, “The Two Electras,” by Cliff Garten; inside, a ceiling grid artwork by Glenn Kaino.
The new space is just north of the existing terminal, which is to be demolished. The new entrance will be at Winona Avenue and Hollywood Way. Airport officials say the change will not affect the number of flights or the airport’s operating hours, which are 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
In the new terminal, airport officials say, the walk from the entrance to the farthest gate will be 1,285 feet, down from 1,600 feet now, with wider corridors and sidewalks and access to power plugs for devices from every seat. Baggage claim carousels will move from outdoors to indoors.
A July 7 photo shows work in progress at Hollywood Burbank Airport, where a new terminal is scheduled to open in October.
(Hollywood Burbank Airport)
The airport project, known as Elevate BUR, has been overseen by the project management company Jacobs. The Design-Build portion of the project is led by Holder, Pankow, TEC, Joint Venture. Corgan provided architectural services in association with CannonDesign.
As it does now, the airport will supply shuttle bus service between the new terminal and Burbank Airport-South Train Station (which connects with Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner) and the Burbank Airport-North Station at San Fernando Road and Hollywood Way.
Another thing that won’t change: Passengers will continue to walk across the tarmac from terminal to stairs to planes, rather than using the enclosed jetways common in other airports, especially larger ones. It’s something travelers say they appreciate about the airport.
“The second I step onto the tarmac at Burbank, I start acting like I’m boarding a private jet,” wrote one Threads user. “And you’ll never convince me otherwise.”
Some other changes travelers can expect in Burbank:
- The new terminal’s 14 food service units are tentatively set to include a Flavor Town, Spring Chicken, Farm Table Bistro, Jones Coffee, Perry’s Joint, Poquito Mas, West Coast Smash Burger, Diane’s Pizzeria, Massis Kebab, Starbucks, Border Grill, Jet Tila’s Asian Table, Santa Canela bakery and a bar with picture-window views of the runways and Verdugo mountains.
The Grand Hall of the soon-to-open terminal at Hollywood Burbank Airport awaits finishing touches on July 7.
(Hollywood Burbank Airport)
- A new parking structure next to the new terminal will hold 2,007 parking spots, including 400 valet spots. (The airport’s total number of parking spaces will remain the same at 6,637.)
- The distance between the new terminal and the airport’s existing rental car facility and bus stop (Regional Intermodal Transit Center) will be slightly less than a mile by shuttle bus.
On-air challenge
Based on the clue, name two words that have the same number of letters and begin and end with the letters provided. (Ex. Rocks / five letters / S and E —> Slate, Shale)
1. European languages in 7 letters starting with S and ending with .
2. Ancient stringed instruments / 4 letters / L and E
3. Birds / 6 letters / P and N
4. Parts of the body / 5 letters / T and H
5. Things seen in a classroom / 5 letters / C and K
6. Newsstand magazines / 7 letters / E and E
7. Books of the Bible / 4 letters / A and S
8. Foods from Italy / 5 letters / P and A
Last week’s challenge
Next weekend will be the 186th convention of the National Puzzler League, in Bloomington, Ind., which I’ll be attending as always. Two other people who will be there are Henri Picciotto and Joshua Kosman, who created this week’s challenge. Name two words that are opposites. They share a single letter. Remove that shared letter from each word, put a hyphen between the two starting words, and you’ll get a term you sometimes see in food ads. What are the two words?
Challenge answer
Slow, fast –> low-fat
Winner
Debra Waller of Burlington, Kentucky
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Take the 10-letter name of a popular TV series for which most of its seasons have been filmed in a foreign country. Remove the first and last letters, and the remaining letters can be rearranged to spell the name of a country. What are the two names?
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, July 16 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
“Portraits 2019 – 2026” by Tyler Matthew Oyer at Night Gallery
“Location Unknown, 2023 – TANA 2023.”
(Tyler Matthew Oyer and Night Gallery)
Experience Tyler Matthew Oyer’s photographic exhibition, “Portraits 2019-2026.” This immersive show moves through seven years of portraits through Oyer’s lens, capturing subjects’ raw individuality. Showcasing “the panoramic and the intimate,” the photographs line the entirety of the gallery in identical scales and frames, emphasizing that every face carries equal presence and beauty. The exhibition coincides with Oyer’s fifth portrait book release, which features selections from his extensive archive. Open July 18 through Aug. 15. 2050 Imperial St., Los Angeles. nightgallery.com
Paloma Wool opening
Paloma Wool’s first permanent store in L.A. houses footwear, bags, a fresh new menswear line and exclusive specialty projects. This new space contrasts a bright, vivid backdrop with dark furnishings, alluding to the brand’s edgy, crisp designs. Open now. 8410 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. palomawool.com
Noah Los Angeles opening
Founders Brendon Babenzien and Estelle Bailey-Babenzien bring the East Coast to L.A. this summer with the opening of Noah’s first West Coast location. Blending classic menswear with skate and surf culture, the space also features an in-store skate bowl, reflecting the brand’s roots while tapping into Los Angeles’ laid-back vibe. Open now. 911 N. Orange Drive, Los Angeles. noahny.com
H. Lorenzo opening
H. Lorenzo’s new flagship store reflects the brand’s commitment to highlight both established and emerging designers from around the world. It also showcases rare collectible furniture, including pieces by woodworker George Nakashima. By day, the space takes on an ever-evolving approach to display; by night it transforms into a hub for cultural programming and community gatherings. Open now. 8801 Beverly Blvd. West Hollywood. hlorenzo.com
Bang & Olufsen opening
Bang & Olufsen’s new flagship is using music to connect people from all over the world, reimagining the classic retail experience into an immersive sound house perfect for showcasing Los Angeles’ vibrant and diverse entertainment culture. Customers can experience the brand’s latest technology in a setting inspired by Nordic design and Southern California living. Open now. 370 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood. bang-olufsen.com
Maison Louis Marie opening
Upgrade your scent game this summer with a visit to Maison Louis Marie’s new flagship store in Silver Lake. Designed in collaboration with Via Clover, the fragrance house has curated a light, modern space, blending French and Californian aesthetics where customers browse everything from Fleur de la Passion hair and body mist to No. 10 Aboukir candles at their own pace. Open now. 3920 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. maisonlouismarie.com
Molteni&C L.A. flagship redesign and new collection
Italian craftsmanship and contemporary living come together in Molteni&C’s newly redesigned Beverly Hills flagship. After exploring thoughtfully curated living spaces featuring coffee tables designed by Vincent Van Duysen, be sure to check out the brands’ latest Outdoor Collection, ideal for the heat of L.A.’s long summers. Open now. 147 N Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood. molteni&c.com
Zegna’s new fragrance line
Zegna’s new fragrance line, Memorie, is shaped by place, ritual and intention. Inspired by the Alps of northern Italy, each of the six scents captures a moment, place or object from founder Ermenegildo Zegna’s life, preserving memory through fragrance. Available now. zegna.com
“Animals” by Alex Gardner at Perrotin
“Catapult,” 2025. Acrylic on canvas. Unframed: 48 1/16 x 96 1/16 inches. Framed: 51 7/8 x 99 3/4 x 5 inches.
(Don Lewis/Alex Gardner; Perrotin)
Join Long Beach artist Alex Gardner for the final days of his first solo exhibition in a decade as he reimagines the meaning of fatherhood at Perrotin. Through a series of acrylic paintings, Gardner explores intimate connections between parents and children, partners and siblings, inviting viewers to identify themselves within his signature faceless figures. Open through July 11. 5036 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. perrotin.com
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