Evansville Culinary Tours was started to promote small clusters of unique restaurants to the public. The idea was simple enough: As a chef, I would prearrange and lead visits to 3 or 4 restaurants in 2 to 3 hours time. We’d experience the atmosphere, taste food specials, meet the chefs and staff, then move on to the next spot and repeat.
In the first eleven months, a variety of people, more than two-thirds of whom I never met before, have taken the tours. Several people have come back for more, some as many as five times. Yes, five times!
Why is that significant?
While it’s not unusual for family and friends to help get a new venture off the ground, it gets serious when complete strangers start calling and willingly pay the fare. That’s when a small business owner starts to think they might be onto something real and good.
The first tour took place on Friday, March 10, 2017, at 11:00. It was called “Downtown on Main”. I cut the price in half to lure people in, as well as to make up for any of my nervous jitters. The first tour sold out quickly — to most of whom were my friends, but two. Thank goodness for friends! And because I knew almost everyone, my nerves weren’t too bad
that day, and we all had a good time.
Two days before the first tour I first went personally to each restaurant on the tour to explain how the whole thing was to work. I visited Arazu on Main one Wednesday at 1:30 thinking the lunch rush would have been over. Not even close. The restaurant had patrons dining in and others coming in for take out. As I explained to the manager and owner, my every awkward word was overheard by people quietly finishing their meals at nearby tables.
The second stop was at Angelo’s Italian Restaurant. The chef listened closely to my spiel and reacted as if he’d been expecting this exact opportunity to come his way. We reserved a lunch table for two days later, planned to have traditional lasagna, and a platter of gluten-free Penne Al Fredo to accommodate a known celiac patron.
My pitch was greatly improved by the time I met Chef Dana at Salad World. He liked the idea of being on the food tour. We decided on one of his famous calzones which he’d send out already cut into portions for us.
A coffee stop is a good way to end a tour. River City Coffee Company is tucked way in the back of the River City Mercantile building. It’s a small space with big ideas about coffee. The young owners were more than happy to include a live demo on how to select the best coffee beans and make excellent coffee. It was decided the group would sip coffee and munch on gluten-free cocoa energy cookies during the presentation.
Just a couple of days after arranging the details of the tour with the restauranteurs, the inaugural tour went off without a hitch. Everyone seemed genuinely pleased with the outcome, and no one more than me!
Now, with 17 successful tours on the books, my daydreams reflect real life experiences: some good, not-so-good and plenty in between.
What started out to be a part time, unique, taste and talk food business is proving to be a walk in the right direction for informative, fun, foodie fellowship adventures.