ACL Music Festival’s Food Courts Include Cuantos Tacos and a Tiki Bar

The city’s biggest music festival — Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) — is happening in October with two weekends full of great bands, musicians, and singers such as the Foo Fighters, Kendrick Lamar, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Alanis Morissette. And because it’s Austin, along with music, the festival includes a top-notch lineup of food from local restaurants and food trucks.

For the first time, ACL is hosting a dedicated desserts area dubbed ACL Sweets. The area includes a bunch of ice cream and other such-treats spots such as first-timers little pancake truck JP’s Pancake Company, Thai rolled ice cream truck Holla Mode, and Dallas-based Brazilian-style popsicle spot Picolé. There will also be a cotton candy vending machine by Chicago-based national company Candy Cloud World.

The music festival is also adding two new dedicated bars. First, there’s the nonalcoholic bar, Bar None, with drinks created by Austin bar expert Robert Björn Taylor. And secondly, there’s a tiki bar, Barton Beach Club Tiki Bar, with cocktails, an ACL tiki mug, and poke from Austin spot Poke Poke.

As for main ACL’s food courts — the ACL Eats and the mini-ACL Eats — there are a bunch of first-time-festival restaurants on the docket. Amazing food truck Cuantos Tacos will be setting up shop (perhaps they’ll also do their hamburguesas too?). Seafood truck Huckleberry is also on deck, presumably with some fried fish options. Then very new Austin Korean American wine restaurant Underdog is also cooking at the festival, which could mean its Korean fried chicken or hopefully its ebi burgers. And then fantastic farmers market stand and cafe Steamies Dumplings will be there too. Also of note are Waco restaurant Hawk’s Hot Chicken and New Texan restaurant and butcher shop Salt & Time.

Interestingly, East Austin beer garden, brewery, and restaurant Koko’s Bavarian is cooking at the festival, despite the fact that its physical location remains temporarily closed for space upgrades and renovations since June. Though its stands within stadiums and arenas (including Austin’s Moody Center) are still operational.

Although vegan bakery Skull & Cakebones closed its physical bakery space in Dripping Springs in late 2022, the wholesale business is still operational. So them baking at ACL makes sense.

San Antonio chef Jason Dady is bringing back his stand, Nacho Dady, but is slightly changing it for a third time by swapping last year’s chicken wings to this year’s chicken tenders. National burger chain Shake Shack returns to the festival for the first time since 2019. Tex-Mex restaurant El Patio will be bringing back its trailer to set up on the grounds serving nachos, chips, dips, as well as a margarita bar. Gone is last year’s barbecue pits.

ACL Music Festival takes place Friday, October 6 through Sunday, October 8 and then again from Friday, October 13 through Sunday, October 15 at Zilker Park.

ACL Eats 2023 Lineup

* denotes newcomers

• Austin’s Pizza
• Blenders & Bowls
• Brotherton’s Barbecue*
• Burro Grilled Cheese
• Chi’lantro
• Come & Take It Fresh Squeezed
• Cuantos Tacos*
• East Side King
• Flyrite Chicken
• Four Brothers Venezuelan Kitchen
• Happy Chicks
• Hawk’s Hot Chicken*
• Homie Fries (Burro Grilled Cheese’s loaded fries truck)
• Huckleberry*
• JuiceLand
• Kababeque
• Koko’s Bavarian
• Lambas Indian Kitchen
• Lonesome Dove
• Mama Fried (Austin barbecue truck LeRoy & Lewis’s fries truck)
• Micklethwait Barbecue
• Mmmpanadas
• Nacho Dady & Tenders
• Nervous Charlie’s
• Pelons Tex Mex
• RedFin Seafood Kitchen*
• Salt & Time*
• Shake Shack
• Shawarma Point
• Show Me Pizza*
• Skull & Cakebones
• Southside Flying Pizza
• Steamies Dumplings*
• Taco Bronco
• The Cavalier Party & Tots
• The Original Black’s BBQ
• Tiny Pies
• Underdog*
• Wholly Cow Burgers

ACL Sweets 2023 Lineup

• Amy’s Ice Creams
• Bananarchy
• Candy Cloud World*
• GoodPop
• Holla Mode*
• JP’s Pancake Company*
• Mister Softee*
• Picole*
• Sno-Beach
• Tiff’s Treats
• Tiny Pies