Taste Carolina brings its walking food tours to Winston-Salem
By Michael Breedlove

The best way to learn about a town is to eat your way through it.

Those were the sentiments of Lesley Stracks, co-founder of Taste Carolina Gourmet Food Tours, moments before she led our group on a food tour through West End. A couple of miles and a couple of meals later, I realized she had a good point.

This particular trip, a “walking food tour,” is one of the first of its kind in Winston-Salem. The tours are the brainchild of Stracks and her business partner, Joe Philipose, two foodies who started Taste Carolina in 2009. After running a slew of successful tours in the Triangle, the two expanded their operations to Winston-Salem this spring.

Stracks plotted two unique tours in town—one through West End and another in the Arts District—both of which last around three hours and cover a couple of miles. Along the way, tour-goers make stops at a handful of eateries to sample signature food and beverage items. They also get to talk candidly with restaurant owners and chefs, who provide a behind-the-scenes look at the business and its offerings.

Add it all up, and you’ve got a formula that seems to be working quite well. Somewhere between the pulled pork at Bib’s and the tomato pie at Mozelle’s, I decided this was easily the best-tasting tour I’d ever taken. (Maybe the best that anyone had ever taken?). I wasn’t the only one enjoying myself.

“It was the most fun I’ve had on a Saturday in a long time,” said fellow walking tourist Joann Gibson. “Just to hear the stories and put a face behind the food, it makes you feel much more connected to each place.”

As for her favorite dish on the tour: “I’d have to say the Lavender French Toast from Breakfast of Course. It was magnificent!”

In addition to tastings, the tours mix in a good bit of Twin City history and architecture along the way, something Deanna Leonard calls “a nice added bonus.”

“I knew I’d eat some great food, but I had no idea how many factoids and history lessons there’d be,” she said after a recent tour. “I think I learned as much in those three hours as I have in the nine years I’ve lived here.”

She wasn’t alone in her revelations. It seemed the more I walked those curvy streets, the more hidden details started to emerge (details I usually zip right by in my SUV). With each block, I was picking out things that had escaped me for years: sculptures, gardens, even entire buildings. How, for instance, had I missed the Colonel Ludlow House all this time?

“That’s the thing about these tours,” Stracks says. “Locals tend to get just as much out of them as out-of-towners. It can be pretty fun to be a tourist in your own town.”

She adds that a lot of times, locals sign up for tours when they have a guest visiting from out of town. “It’s really a great way to show off your city.”

I headed home that day feeling proud of our downtown and its culinary offerings. If nothing else, these tours are a testament to just how far the area has come in recent years. (Let’s face it: A tour like this couldn’t have happened a decade ago). As Stracks suggests, good food goes a long way when it comes to revitalization.

“One of the things that drew us to Winston-Salem was the renewed energy downtown,” she says. “And really, the restaurants were a big reason for the energy. This city is a little unique in that all the downtown restaurant owners seem to support and root for one another; they see themselves as one big community, not as competitors. As an outsider looking in, it’s a really special thing to see, and we’re happy to be a part of it.”

*****
Tours run every Saturday from 1:30 to 4:45 p.m. Right now, tours alternate from one week to the next—West End one week and the Arts District the next—though both will eventually run simultaneously. The cost is $41 per person, which gets you food and beverages at seven stops. Tours are capped at 12 people but can run with as few as two. In addition to Saturday tours, a variety of customizable trips can be arranged throughout the week. These include corporate outings, team-building sessions, and birthday parties (or “roaming cocktail parties,” as Stracks calls them). Book a tour online at www.tastecarolina.net or by calling 919-237-2254.

Where you’ll go:

West End
• NOMA Urban Bar and Grill
• Bib’s Downtown
• Mozelle’s Fresh Southern Bistro
• City Beverage Farmer’s Market
• Haute Chocolate
• Caffé Prada
• Foothills Brewing

Arts District
• Sixth & Vine
• Bib’s Downtown
• Breakfast of Course
• Sweet Potatoes
• Mooney’s Mediterranean Cafe
• Camino Bakery
• Tate’s Craft Cocktails

***All stops subject to change.