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Super Bowl weekend is about football, of course, but when it’s held in a destination like the Bay Area, food is going to be a big part of the draw. Visitors will be hunting down the best local eats, filling up with local flavors before the excitement of the big game. The Super Bowl is a chance to showcase a city’s top eats. High-rollers hit up the best of the best, while others seek out hidden gems and newcomers.
San Francisco was buzzing with immersive activations for fans over the weekend, and some events made a point of promoting local Bay Area restaurants that deserve attention and deliver on flavor. With limited time and limited stomach capacity, these events offered the chance to sample a slew of top dishes from amazing local restaurants all in one go. Here’s how it went.
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Pepsi’s Bay Area Local Eats festival, part of the NFL Fan Zone experience, centered on regional restaurants. The food-focused activation in Yerba Buena Gardens featured Bay Area restaurants serving up some of their star dishes. It was part of their Local Eats Deserve Pepsi program, designed to build support for diverse, independent eateries. The platform has supported more than 75,000 local restaurants nationwide since its launch, and this was the Bay Area’s time to shine. Pepsi even had some real star power behind the event, as Martha Stewart herself was involved, making an appearance to sample all the goods.
While there was plenty of buzz around Upper Cut’s grilled cheese (with fig, sharp and white cheddar, truffle oil, a side of tomato bisque and an exceptional cheese pull), I hit up Tacolicious first. This Cal-Mex restaurant, inspired by Mexico City street food, serves up favorites and tacos with a twist. The vegetarian option featured kale, plenty of garlic, herbs and yellow eye beans from my favorite bean source, Rancho Gordo.
Joyride, a local spot specializing in Detroit-style pies, came through with options that looked as good as they tasted. The veggie pie looked like a little garden with greens, ricotta and peppadews. Korean/Japanese/Mexican fusion is nothing to sleep on, and KoJa Kitchen proved it with its Korean BBQ beef and kimchi nachos. Goodfellas and Oasis Kitchen both represented Mediterranean flavors.
But if you take your food recommendations only from the best, the winner here is North Beach’s Steps of Rome Trattoria and its polpette. Martha Stewart, during her special appearance at the event, confirmed that these meatballs are indeed the best in San Francisco.
Taste of the NFL, another event backed by PepsiCo, offered a more exclusive taste of the Bay Area. Chefs from local restaurants joined hotshots from the culinary world (including Andrew Zimmern, Carla Hall and Cat Cora) at the Hibernia, a historic bank that’s now an event venue downtown. The venue was absolutely packed—a great turnout for beneficiary GenYouth, a nonprofit committed to ending youth food insecurity.
An NFL player was stationed with every chef, so fans could meet their favorites while sampling the food. Current players like D.J. Reader and Chad Ryland and former greats like Wesley Walker and Mike "Scooter" McGruder were on hand and loving the festivities. But the focus was the food, of course. Here you can try everything from Al Pastor Papi's burritos and Chef Tyler Florence's wagyu skewers to Ethiopian misir wot from Meski, Dungeness Crab tacos from Willi’s Seafood and Raw Bar and banana pudding from Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement. Chef Eric Adjepong even brought a culinary creation that transformed San Francisco’s Rice-a-Roni into a memorable jollof arancini.
I particularly enjoyed the Cured Mt. Lassen Trout (with fermented apple and toasted nori on a rice chip) from 7 Adams, the Fregola de Pescatore from Doppio Zero and Jerk Chicken from Oakland’s Cocobreeze. The event was a true taste of some of the best restaurants to check out in the Bay Area.
Super Bowl weekend featured a slew of parties with nonstop celeb appearances, but for me, and many others, food was the star. These events let local restaurants shine, and they won’t soon be forgotten.
Time Out visited San Francisco and the surrounding Super Bowl events on a group press trip hosted by Pepsi. For information on our policies around editorial independence, reviews, and recommendations, see our editorial guidelines.
