Beautiful downtown Davidson

If you read my post yesterday, you’ll know that our Davidson Food Tour got off to a sumptuous and bountiful start at Toast of Davidson, The Soda Shop, and Flatiron Kitchen and Taphouse. Next we were granted a brief reprieve from food consumption as we set out one of the longer walks of the tour to Davidson Beverage Company, a Craft Beer business owned by John Baker.

Beer tasting at Davidson Beverage Company

Davidson Beverage Company, located at 442 S Main St, has 6 rotating taps and we were treated to a sample of each of the beers currently on tap, including Carver Sweet Potato Beer and Ramble on Red which is produced by NoDa brewing Company located in Charlotte.

Davidson Beverage Company offers over 300 craft beer choices and sells a large selection of cold singles. The intention is that you will try something new while you are there and take home a 6-pack or case if you like it.

After finishing our beer samples, we were off to Restaurant X for dessert. Restaurant X is a small, cozy restaurant with only about 10 tables inside and a slightly larger outdoor area and is owned and operated by Chris and Christina Phillips. Because Restaurant X is normally only open for dinner on Saturdays, we had the place to ourselves. We were told an interesting story about the restaurant’s name by our host. Hopefully I remember it correctly as I was partially in a food-induced coma by this point. When the restaurant was still in the planning phases and hadn’t been named, it was referred to as Restaurant X on the paper work. After people repeatedly saying to them, “what are you going to name the restaurant, you can’t call it restaurant X?’, Chris and Christina thought, “well actually yes we can call it Restaurant X and we will”. (Or something to that effect. Remember the food induced coma and the beer tasting, right?)

Anyways, I was happy that the portion sizes at Restaurant X were reasonable. We were each served  a sample of Belgian Chocolate Mousse and Banoffee (banana and toffee on gingersnap crust). Both were delicious with just the right amount of sweetness.

Oh- incidentally, Restaurant X will be having a Father’s Day Brunch on June 17th.

With our sugar high, we proceeded on to the next stop on the tour, Campania, a family owned and operated Italian restaurant located in a building that was formally an icehouse. Lunch is served daily Monday through Friday and dinner begins at 5pm.

The atmosphere in Campania is warm and rustic with exposed brick walls. Our hosts were owners Nancy and Vincent DiGiorgio. We were fortunate to get them all to ourselves since the restaurant wasn’t open to the public at the time. They were extremely gracious and it was a pleasure to hear them talk about their business withsuch passion and love.  Nancy and Vincent moved down from New Jersey a number of years ago and specifically choose Davidson as the place they wanted to open their restaurant after looking at many different areas.

We were served eggplant rollatini and thank goodness they added a salad to lighten the meal up a bit. I love the opportunity to eat eggplant in a restaurant because it’s something I rarely cook at home. The eggplant was thinly cut and very fresh, with no taste of bitterness. With a cheesy filling and fresh tomato sauce, it definitely pleased everyone’s palate.

Can’t wait to have another dining experience at Campania.

Amazingly long bar at Brickhouse Tavern

Finally, we made it to the last  stop on the tour! At this point my stomach didn’t know what in the world was going on. Anyone who knows me well knows I can consume large quantities of food, but I don’t know that I’ve ever eaten for 4 hours pretty much nonstop.

Located in the refurbished Davidson Cotton Mill, a 120 year old building, The Brickhouse Tavern has been in business for over 9 years. Judging by the number of people there at 5:30, it’s a pretty popular place. The atmosphere at Brickhouse is young and energetic and it was the perfect place to end the tour on a festive note.

We were served a delicious rib, slow-cooked and then chargrilled, served with ranch coleslaw. The owner spent a good deal of time talking to us even though it was obvious the restaurant was busy and he had work to do.

Looking back on the tour, I really have to say I loved all the businesses and would like to return to each and sample more of their food.

If you are interested in buying tickets to the next Tour de Food Davidson Tour, visit www.tourdefood.net.

Lisa Schnurr does a fantastic job running the tour. She’s passionate about food, knowledgable about the restaurants, friendly, and obviously very organized. I don’t know how she arranged it so that we had a very minimal wait for food at each restaurant, but she did.

It is with great anticipation that I wait for Tour de Food’s NoDa Tour to debut!

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.