17 Things You Need To Know About Food and Drink at Life Is Beautiful

Less than one month until Life Is Beautiful, the food and music festival, takes over Downtown Las Vegas, and now there’s a clearer picture of the food and beverage options available to festival attendees. Sure, Foo Fighters, Outback, Kanye West and Lionel Richie are among the headliners, but you’ll need to fuel up on food and cocktails during the event. Life Is Beautiful’s Kate Neuhaus and Rehan Choudry brought in chefs who will be cooking at the festival along with reps from Wirtz Beverage, who will be pouring the cocktails, beers and wines, to show what to expect Oct. 24-26.

1. In all, there will be 57 different cocktails, 20-plus high-end wines and 25 specialty beers found throughout the festival.

2. Instead of a culinary village, food from restaurants and chefs will be spread out over four areas all over the festival grounds.

3. The Life Is Beautiful Dutch Mule is the official drink of the festival. It features Ketel One Citroen-Flavored vodka, Barritts Bermuda Stone ginger beer and lime. It’s delicious.

4. Want to blend your own cocktail? There will be three stationary bikes with blenders attached on the front. Thirsty guests can peddle their way to a cocktail with the ingredients combined in a blender that works when the bicycle is in motion.

5. Many of the dishes will have cocktail, wine or beer pairings for the event. So if you want to order Hubert Keller’s creamy corn soup with duck confit ravioli and a spicy parmesan foam, your server might suggest you pair it with a Bacardi 8 old fashioned, found just a few booths down.

6. Each of the four stages will have four to six different wines at the beverage stands nearby.

7. A majority of the dishes will ring in under $10.

8. Beer will come in 16-ounces glasses, wine in five to six ounce pours and cocktails a two-ounce pour.

9. Heineken and Dos Equis are the official beers of the festival.

10. But one central beer garden will feature craft beers.

11. Rick Moonen of RM Seafood and Rx Boiler Room fame plans to serve his Moon Doggie at the event. The $10 shrimp hot dog with chipotle aioli, cabbage slaw and togarashi chips will be at the event along with a $15 lobster roll.

12. You may want to stock up on Wet Wipes. Dishes such as Brooklyn Bowl and Blue Ribbon Sushi’s smoked wings and Yusho’s massive barbecue turkey leg will leave you messy. When asked if there would be wipes, silence.

13. Dishes are also on the spicy side. The ahi tuna taco from Tbones Chophouse had some kick to it, so you might be drinking quite a few Southside Cucumbers with Hendrick’s gin, lemon, mint, cucumber and soda to wash it down.

14. Want deviled eggs? Blue Ribbon and Brooklyn Bowl plan to serve pickled pepper egg shooters.

15. They may even have gluten-free options.

16. A Prime beef sandwich from Hank’s Fine Steaks and Tbones Chophouse is going for $9. Not too bad for festival food.

17. You can pay with cash, credit or debit cards.

Grid View

• Life is Beautiful Dutch Mule
• Life is Beautiful's Kate Neuhaus Life is Beautiful's Kate Neuhaus
• Yusho Turkey Leg & Moroccan BBQ and Pork Bun with Ssam Sauce & Kimchi and Eggplant Bun
• Yusho Chef Jacob Dodds-Sloan and GM Joshua Wolf
• The Wirtz Beverage team
• Wirtz Beverage's Drew Levinson
• Tbones Chef Aaron Losch
• Tbones Ahi Tuna Taco - Avocado Wasabi Cream, Wakame Salad, Soy Reduction with Sriracha Aioli
• rm seafood & Rx Boiler Room Chef Rick Moonen
• Rick Moonen Moon N' Doggie
• Life is Beautiful's Rehan Choudhry
• Hank's Prime Beef Sandwich, roasted garlic hoagie, pepper jack sauce, creamy horse radish, spicy pickle and fried onion straws
• Hank's Chef Luigi Iannuario
• Fleur Creamy Corn Soup with duck confit ravioli and a spicy Parmesan foam
• Fleur Chef Jose "Lupe" Avila
• Brooklyn Bowl Pickled Pepper Egg Shooters, Trout Salad and Smoked Wings
• Brooklyn Bowl Chef Dermot Driscoll