Tony Gemignani and the SFIAC Foundation bring their pizza benefit back to North Beach's Washington Square on Saturday, Aug. 15, with 36-plus pizzerias, about 15 breweries, and a $90 general-admission ticket.

The San Francisco Pizza, Bagel & Beer Festival returns to North Beach on Saturday, Aug. 15, spreading across two blocks of Stockton and Filbert streets along Washington Square. Award-winning pizzaiolo Tony Gemignani is the public face, but the event is run in collaboration with the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club Foundation — the SFIAC holds the event and directs where the money goes.

That distinction matters, because this is a benefit as much as a party. The organizers say the festival has raised more than $225,000 over its last three years; the 2026 edition names eight beneficiaries, among them the John Arena Foundation, the Salesian Boys & Girls Club, Saints Peter & Paul School, and Friends of Washington Square Park. The event first ran in 2023.

The vendor math is the part an operator would clock. The foundation says 36-plus pizzerias have committed — a roster that in past years has drawn Gemignani's own Tony's Pizza Napoletana and Capo's alongside A16, Flour + Water Pizzeria, and Square Pie Guys — plus roughly 15 local breweries pouring, with non-alcoholic beer and cider on hand. Slices come cocktail-napkin sized on purpose, so a ticket buys a crawl through styles rather than a single dinner; there's no cap on how much pizza or how many bagels you eat, and no to-go boxes allowed.

General admission runs $90 and includes four 14-ounce beers, according to the festival's ticketing; the ladder drops to $60 for ages 13 and up and $30 for ages 5 to 12, with under-5s free. A $275 VIP ticket buys an hour of early access and a perch on the third floor of the SFIAC building overlooking the square, with an open bar, charcuterie, and a gift bag. Doors are listed at noon to 4 p.m.

New this year, per the organizers, is live music and picnic space inside Washington Square itself — a shift from a pure street-fair footprint to letting people sit in the park with a slice and a beer in the North Beach sun.

The festival lands in a stretch when North Beach's pizza standing keeps making news: Tony's Pizza Napoletana tied for second in the 50 Top Pizza USA 2026 guide in June, and the neighborhood's Festa Italiana drew Gemignani's world-champion pizza toss in the same park two months earlier. For one Saturday in August, the square becomes the city's biggest open-air pizza counter — with the proceeds routed back to the block it sits on.

The SFIAC Foundation is at 1630 Stockton St.; organizers recommend transit or rideshare over parking.