See The 5 New Food Vendors Coming to Summerfest
Dozens of new eats for this year's festival, including birria bao, yakisoba noodles and boba tea.
Birria bao from Pina Cocina & Cantina Photo taken May 22, 2024 by Sophie Bolich.
An exuberant crowd of reporters, bloggers and notable Milwaukeeans made the rounds of the Miller Lite Brew House at Henry Maier Festival Park on Wednesday, where they admired this year’s spread of new food items for Summerfest.
The smell of warm tortillas and grilled burgers filled the air, while Pete’s Pops, with its signature rainbow umbrella, was clearly visible among the vendors. In fact, the room was filled with familiar faces, from Pizza Man to DanDan.
The latter, a Chinese-American restaurant operated by Dan Van Rite and current “Top Chef” competitor Dan Jacobs, is one of five new food vendors for this year’s festival. The others are Fazio’s Popping Bubbles, Los Mariachis, Pina Cocina & Cantina and Wokkin’ Roll.
The newcomers put a strong emphasis on East Asian and fusion cuisine, with offerings including Japanese yakisoba noodles with sliced beef short rib from Wokkin’ Roll; Danan noodles, sichuan pork dumplings and egg rolls from DanDan; birria bao from Pina Cocina & Cantina and a variety of boba teas from Fazio’s Popping Bubbles.
An additional three dozen new menu items will join the Summerfest lineup this year, with a plethora of handhelds for efficient noshing and frozen treats to beat the heat.
Other standouts include La Masa‘s cookie dough-stuffed empanadas, smoke brisket roll from Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que, Mexican street corn from Los Mariachis and Proof hard ice cream.
The ice cream, available in flavors like pina colada, strawberry daiquiri, caramel old fashioned and chocolate espresso martini, will be served at the festival’s Mid Gate Market, Dockside and select American Family Insurance Amphitheater concessions locations.
The concession stands will also add hot honey chicken tenders, bacon blue cheeseburger, Doritos walking tacos, peanut butter M&M’s and other new items this year.
New beverages announced for the 2024 festival include Happy Thursday strawberry spiked refresher, Simply spiked limeade, Topo Chico oasis cherry hard seltzer and an assortment of cocktails.
Summerfest, presented by American Family Insurance, also unveiled new merchandise for the 2024 festival. The line includes an official commemorative pin, graphic t-shirts, a festival poster and Taylor Swift–inspired friendship bracelets, along with more than 90 other products.
During the festival, shoppers can browse and purchase merch at three Summerfest Store locations throughout the grounds.
Summerfest 2024 will take place across three weekends: June 20 through 22, June 27 through 29 and July 4 through 6.
A full list of food and beverage options, including gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian items, is available to view online. Fans can also seek out their favorite food and beverages by using the official Summerfest app, sponsored by Pepsi.
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Maybe I’m a bit cranky today, but in my experience it doesn’t matter. For whatever reason, none of their products will taste the same as what they produce outside of Summerfest. You can’t even get a Martino’s hot dog that tastes like a Martino’s hot dog inside of the Summerfest grounds.