Local Food Tours have become a popular way to experience a city, town, or neighborhood one bite at a time and they are perfect for discovering new places to eat (or drink) and meet new people who share a passion for good food. Food Tours haven’t really been available in the Charlotte area, but thanks to Lisa Schnurr and her new business Tour de Food, that’s changing.
My husband and I met Lisa last month at a Good Eats and Meets Meet Up and when she told us about her new food tour business, we were sold. We attended her inaugural Davidson Food Tour on June 2 and had a fabulous time. The Davidson Food Tour lasts about 4 hours and makes quick stops at 6-7 restaurants, all within a short walk of each other. Lisa has experience as a food guide in the Winston-Salem area with Taste Carolina and her experience shows. She was well prepared with interesting facts about the restaurants as well as about the town itself.
Raspberry Walnut pancake with hash browns and bacon.
If you’ve never been to Davidson NC, it’s a must visit place- a quaint college town with wonderful shops and restaurants, beautiful old Victorian style homes, and gorgeous Magnolia trees which happened to be in full bloom. If you’ve grown up in the South, the sweet scent of the Magnolia flower is sure to bring back memories.
The first stop on the tour was Toast Davidson at 101 N Main St. Not too long ago, we ate at Toast Dilworth (read about it here). Toast Davidson opened in 2008 and has been very successful. We were seated in a lovely corner of their back patio, where incidentally the manager told us an episode of House Hunters would be filmed the next weekend. They promised to have info on their Facebook page when they find out the air date for the show. The pancake, with pureed raspberries, was wonderful and the saltiness of the bacon and hash browns complimented it well.
Enjoying breakfast at Toast.
Interior of Toast
Main St
Next we made a short walk to The Soda Shop at 104 S Main St. In contrast to the other stops on the tour, The Soda Shop has been a fixture in Davidson for many years (since 1951). The menu has had new additions in recent years, but is mostly filled with tried and true dishes. We were served chicken salad sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, fried green beans (some of the best I’ve ever had), sweet potato chips, and samples of strawberry, chocolate, and banana pudding milkshakes.
The food kept coming and coming. At this point I was beginning to feel like we were on an episode of Man vs Food and we still had 5 more stops on the tour!
Third stop on the tour was Flatiron Kitchen and Taphouse located in a very cool, newer building, Stowe’s Corner Building. At Flatiron, the focus is on featuring the freshest meat and seafood and they also use as much local produce as possible.
The space in Flatiron is really magnificent with large windows down to sides and a huge beer tower and bar in the middle of the restaurant.
Shrimp and fried Grit Cakes with Tasso Gravy
Crab Cakes with Pesto
The food selections at Flatiron were fantastic. I only regret that I didn’t have room in my stomach for seconds. The shrimp and grit cakes were one of my favorite foods served on the tour. The grit cakes were crunchy on the outside, but creamy inside with pieces of fresh corn.
I’ll have to write about the next 4 stops in a second post as I am running out of time.
The next Davidson Food Tour takes place this Saturday June 16 at 1:30. Visit TourdeFood.net for more info and to purchase tickets. Tickets are about $45 a piece, but as you can see you get a lot of food for the money. It will definitely take care of all your food needs for the day, plus I found I wasn’t hungry again until Sunday afternoon.
If you can’t make it this weekend, there will also be tours on July 7th and 21st AND Lisa is in the process of putting together a tour in the NoDa Neighborhood in Charlotte.
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