In our experience, the best food-related Father’s Day gifts check some combination of feeling personal, kitsch, useful, and delicious. There is no one right way to be a father or a father-like figure, or shop for one, but it feels fair to say that our most successful Father’s Day presents have either fulfilled a hyper-specific need, such as a kneeling foam pad for herb gardening, or celebrated our food-loving fathers’ rituals around grilling, fishing, or making truckloads of their deceased Italian mother’s marinara on Sundays. Riposa in pace, nonna! Your son has become a worthy sauce master in your stead.
Father’s Day falls on June 21 this year, which means you have a little over a week to smash the order button on some Snake River Farms steaks or a high-tech Ooni pizza oven. Should you seriously procrastinate, there are always two-day shipping options from Amazon Prime, and retailers such as Nordstrom provide an estimate of the soonest day an order can arrive. Plus, you can also opt for day-of, shipping-free digital gifts, such as a Southern cooking MasterClass with James Beard Award–winning chef Mashama Bailey, or a gift card to Williams Sonoma.
Your dad is the best dad out of all the dads, of course, so let’s find him the perfect present, whether that means something to throw on the grill (or in the Igloo cooler) or a themed apron that harkens back to his days following the Grateful Dead.
A next-level BBQ sauce set for the grilling dad
Barbecue is an incredible edible art form, and as any brisket- and rib-loving dad knows, opinions run hot about which regional barbecue reigns supreme. That’s why we love this Pitmaster Icons gift set from Goldbelly; it features delectable sauces from Kansas City’s Joe’s KC BBQ; Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ, the James Beard award-winning restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina; world-famous Franklin Barbecue in Austin; Snow’s BBQ, the beloved Lexington, Texas spot; and a sauce created by North Carolina pitmaster Ed Mitchell. Five sauces, five distinct styles, countless delicious meals grilled by Dad. Plus, thanks to Goldbelly’s quick shipping, this set makes a great last-minute gift.
He can always use more chile crisp
Speaking of condiments that feel extra-giftable, for the dad who loves to add heat to his eggs, noodles, sandwiches, or pizza, a jar of carefully selected chile crisp is a great way to broaden his horizons. We like Boon Sauce from chef Max Boonthanakit of LA’s Michelin-recommended restaurant Camphor, which remixes the classic Chinese seasoning with the addition of crispy anchovies, shallots, and fennel. It can be spooned right onto breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or be incorporated into sauces and salad dressings.
Get your dad off crappy instant coffee and into the 21st century
Look, no disrespect to Dad’s massive jar of Folger’s, but he might not even realize that we’re in the fourth wave of coffee by now (maybe even the fifth?) and there are top-tier instant coffees out there that could be blowing his mind every morning while he gets his caffeine fix. If he’s stuck in the past with his freeze-dried crystals, introduce him to Cometeer, which our coffee expert has called “the best instant coffee on the planet.” Brewed as a high-extract concentrate and flash-frozen into individual pucks that you keep in the freezer, Cometeer’s coffee tastes super because it’s never dehydrated, and blooms beautifully with the addition of hot water. “When you do decide to dissolve the puck,” Oliver Strand writes in Eater’s guide to the best instant coffee, “you will have all of the nuanced flavors and delicate aromatics of an immaculately prepared pour over from a good coffee shop.”
A handsome Snow Peak tote for lunch, beer, and beyond
Founded in Japan in 1958, Snow Peak has earned a cult following in the gorpcore crowd for making well-crafted, attractive outdoorsy goods. The brand’s Everyday 2Way Tote can be worn with either short or long straps, and includes plenty of pockets (and even a laptop sleeve), so it’s perfect for taking sandwiches, brewskies, or snacks al fresco, whether Dad is camping, picnicking, or enjoying an outdoor sports game.
These Wagyu steaks from Snake River Farms
Family-operated since 1968, Snake River Farms has earned a reputation as one of the best ranch-to-table slingers in the game for the best meats you can buy, from Kurobuta pork to wild-caught seafood to dry-aged Porterhouse steak. While it’s an excellent source of dad-centric gifts in general — what father wouldn’t want a Smithey skillet or a custom meat subscription box? — but we’re thinking that Daddy deserves some of the meat purveyor’s wagyu beef, because it’s a rich, marbled cross between pure Japanese wagyu and American-bred beef. Plus, they’re 20 percent off right now at checkout.
This set of grill-ready fancy salts
With its Grilling Trio, the highly aesthetic Oregon-based company Jacobsen Salt Co. has treated us to a holy trinity of grilling seasoning blends: Italian, House Special (a garlicky seasoning with a bit of heat), and a classic steak seasoning with paprika, fennel seed, rosemary and more herbs.
One stainless steel frying pan to rule them all
Ah, the endless versatility of a lidded, stainless steel 10-inch frying pan. There’s a good chance your pops has sizzled his own to the high heavens, no? Eater collaborated with Heritage Steel to make our very own iteration, which is made with durable, high-quality, 5-ply stainless steel and given an extra half-inch of circumference, making it the reigning favorite of our fry pan rotation. Plus, from June 15 through July 10, you can save 17.76 percent off all Eater Series cookware sets — y’know, in case Pops is looking for a total reset.
A big stock pot for chili
Whether he’s making his signature pasta dish, chili for the family barbecue, or enough spaetzle to feed the whole Von Trapp family, this 8-quart stock pot sure would come in handy for Dad. (Those generously sized handles will come in handy when he transports his prized stew to the next potluck.)
Cream cheese pound cake, of course
Listen, there’s pound cake and then there’s Mike’s Philly Fluff. I first tried this dense, creamy loaf at a birthday party potluck where it was consumed faster than the actual birthday cake. The secret, of course, is in the addition of cream cheese to the cake batter. There’s also a delightful retro angle to the cake’s packaging that makes it ideal for gift-giving.
Swaggy slippers for drinking wine on the patio
House shoes are, of course, a tried-and-true dad gift — and frankly, for good reason. We always need a quick pair of kicks to throw on to drink Burgundy on the lanai, grab a bag from the car, or scoop a package on the porch. Well, your pops might as well look a little rizzy doing all that, so instead of showing him you care with a boring generic pair of slippers that come zip-tied together at the discount store, step it up with these men’s Nike mules. Better yet, join him outside for a few glasses of wine and ask him to share some lore.
A Deadhead dad’s dream apron…
For the father who is still a headlight on a northbound train. Several Eater staffers own Hedley & Bennett aprons, and can attest to the comfort and durability of the cotton material. The brand’s collab with The Grateful Dead has spawned some of the coolest aprons money can buy, and the latest drop comes complete with a farmers market tote.
… Or a denim apron for a cowboy dad
Maybe you won’t catch Papa at a Dead & Co. gig at the Sphere anytime soon, but you will catch him cranking Kenny Rogers or Tim McGraw while he’s turning some ribeyes over an open flame. Great news: Made In, one of our fave cookware brands, just dropped a very cool collab with Wrangler, and the collection includes this bitchin’ denim apron that adds a rugged edge while keeping his pearl-snap button up clean as a whistle.
Bring the barbeque to him
For far-flung children, I suggest having a robust, high-quality smorgasbord of meats delivered to Dad for him to throw on the grill. Every piece of meat at Porter Road is hand-cut on-site in Kentucky, and its Grilling Heroes Box comes with two dry-aged steaks, two pounds of dry-aged burger patties, and two packs of dry-aged hot dogs. Think of it as the digital equivalent of picking up the check for the cookout.
A digital picture frame for the kitchen
What father doesn’t love flipping flapjacks beside a digital picture frame featuring the best snapshots of his kids, grandkids, and that time you all rode horses together on Catalina Island?
Ooni’s cult-fave pizza oven is $269 off
The Ferrari of pizza ovens. Ooni’s electric indoor model is 30 percent off right now, and can cook a Neapolitan-style pizza in just 90 seconds (a fact which your pops will love explaining to his pals before watching the game).
Track down vintage John Deere drinkware
There’s an infinite bounty of vintage John Deere coasters, shot glasses — hell, there’s even a John Deere tractor-shaped decanter — on vintage and second-hand retailer sites such as Ebay. It’s like they say: you can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the tractor out of his liquor cabinet.
For the pops who wants to sous vide all day
Give Dad the power of preserving his precious deer meats for seasons to come, at the touch of a button.
If there’s one things dads love, it’s a novelty-meets-optimization moment. All of Psyche’s Greek olive oil is cold-extracted in Messenia in the Southwestern Peloponnese, and it’s packaged in lightweight, handle-endowed pouches with a built-in spout for easy use.
Keep things cool with Stanley’s beer stein
Lest we forget, Stanley makes more than Quenchers for dirty sodas. The company’s durable hunter green flasks and colorful beer steins deserve some extra TLC, especially because the latter will keep father’s ambrosia of choice (who knows, maybe it’s a dirty soda!) chilled for hours, whether he’s just chilling on the patio, is at the Big Game, or is chilling on a fishing boat.
One-of-a-kind serving utensils
Qäsa Qäsa Carvers ethically sources all of its hand-carved pieces from the talented artisans of the Makonde tribe in Mtwara, Tanzania. No two sets will look quite alike, and the mixed assortment of blackwood utensils will look just as beautiful serving up a dense bean salad or spices as it will hanging from a pot rack.
This coffret of worldly sausages
Olympia Provisions is the United States’ first-ever USDA-approved salumeria, and it has united 13 lucky sausages with flavor profiles from around the world (think, the cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg sausages of Alsace, France, and the bright citrus-kissed flavors of Greek loukanika) into this gift box for Dad.
Because dads deserve their flowers, too
I have tried almost every flower delivery service, and Farmgirl Flowers always stands out as one of the best; the bouquets arrive on-time, looking fresh and perky, swaddled in a chic, gift-ready burlap wrap. This sunflower bouquet is aptly dubbed the “No Matter What,” because it’s a bundle of optimism and energy that pops will appreciate, no matter what.
Happy Father’s Day, champ.
