Eater Staff
Cheers to Dad (with a John Deere pint glass, of course)
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 15 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.
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.
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 its iconic, chef-loved sea salt, as well as an infused black pepper salt and sea salt steak seasoning with minced garlic, paprika, fennel seed, rosemary, and more dried 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.
A leather oven mitt
Unlike that greying, striped cloth oven mitt your pops has had for years, a leather oven mitt will only look cooler as it gets a little scratched up and worn-in over the years.
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.
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.
A MasterClass in cooking pasta and rice dishes (because even Dad doesn’t know everything)
Is it just me, or was there always a handful of track team and cross country dads who prided themselves on being able to whip up buckets of cheesy pasta dishes before a big meet? Should the dad in your life feel curious about improving their recipe portfolio, MasterClass’ series on hardy pasta and rice dishes is a great way to build up their confidence in the kitchen — although there’s a good chance they already have plenty.
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.
Soulful 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
Leave it to Urban Stems, maker of my go-to Mother’s Day bouquet, the Unicorn, to assemble something festive for Father’s Day. This bouquet is aptly dubbed “The Men Love Flowers,” because it’s a peach rose- and golden marigold-forward bundle of optimism and energy that pops will appreciate.
Happy Father’s Day, champ.
