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Eat, walk, learn
Culinary tours in Greenville, Columbia and Charleston satisfy appetites for good food and local history.
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Take a bite out of Columbia
John Stubing of Columbia’s Main Street Public House serves up pizza with a smile to guests on a walking culinary tour of the capital city offered by Columbia Food Tours.
Photo by Andrew Haworth
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Your guide to culinary adventure
“Come with an empty stomach and an open mind,” says Patrick Duggan, a guide with Charleston Culinary Tours. A food tour might not look or taste exactly as you expect, he says, but you’ll be well-fed and you’ll learn something new.
Photo by Ruta Smith
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Bringing people to the table
John Nolan, owner and chief guide at Greenville History Tours, dishes up stories of the city’s past before the guests dig into plates of crispy, deep-fried pork belly over Brussells sprouts puree at Soby’s New Cuisine,
Photo by Andrew Haworth
One hard-boiled egg was all Keith Lindsey ate for breakfast. Trusting reports from friends, he chose to save his stomach for the promised food-fest to follow on that day’s walking tour of downtown Greenville.
“My friends who’ve done this tour say you’ll be full,” says Lindsey, a Simpsonville resident who was still a bit skeptical—not to mention hungry—as our 1:30 tour prepared to set out. He would not be disappointed.
By the afternoon’s end, Lindsey and 17 fellow food lovers would nibble their way through five restaurants along Greenville’s Main Street. Over the course of about three hours, they enjoyed chef-crafted samplings of chicken, pork belly, salad, vegetables, cakes and drinks, among other treats, along with a healthy serving of local history, architecture and culture.
Experienced tour guides and food tourists say the lure of these pedestrian-friendly dining experiences is two simple ingredients that go well together: food and history. They’re tailor-made for people who enjoy learning the history of their own towns or places they visit, who enjoy a good stroll, and, most of all, who like to eat.
“It’s out of the ordinary,” Greenville History Tours owner and guide John Nolan says. “People are always looking for something different, and they’re surprised how much they learn that they never knew.”
Three different walking tours—in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville—offer a taste of what these foodies-on-foot experiences are all about.
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Charleston
Full plate of history
Centuries of history and a busy culinary scene make Charleston a natural to host food tours. On an overcast but mild Friday, a crew of 16, most from out of state, has gathered in historic downtown Charleston to eat, walk and learn with Charleston Culinary Tours.
Nancy Orosz is entertaining her sister and sister-in-law, visiting from Ohio. This tour fit perfectly with their plans.
“You have to come downtown, and while you’re here, you might as well eat!” Orosz says.
Charleston Culinary Tours’ downtown tour, featuring traditional Lowcountry foods in historic surroundings, appeals to tourists, owner Guilds Hollowell says. “All the old history of Charleston is right here,” he says. “Ain’t nothing changed in the last 200 years.”
Tours of the Upper King Street area are preferred by locals who want to explore eclectic offerings in that edgier food district, Hollowell says.
Our tour starts with a Southern classic—barbecue. Cumberland Smokehouse serves up family-style platters of pork rinds, pulled pork, pickled vegetables, potato salad and tangy beans that we pass from person to person.
Remembering his audience of out-of-towners, tour guide Patrick Duggan explains Southern food. Pork rinds are deep-fried hog skin. Barbecued pork is a South Carolina staple; try the sauces. And, he says, “In Charleston, we like to pickle pretty much anything.”
Perhaps subdued by the day’s damp weather, this group focuses more on eating than socializing. Not to worry, Orosz’s sister, Susan Nank, predicts. “Nancy and I did the Upper King Street tour a few years ago when it was raining, and it was great,” Nank says.
Appetites whetted, we follow Duggan outside to explore some history. And he has plenty. Duggan, whose family ties in Charleston date back to 1690, is passionate about history and food—key traits for a successful tour guide, Hollowell says. Anyone tagging along with Duggan will be stuffed with as much history as food. In fact, strangers eavesdrop as he describes the old walled city, its cobblestone streets, 18th-century architecture, historic churches, the ins and outs of historic renovation, pirate culture, the origins of the City Market—you name it.
Seating is cozy at our second stop, Pawpaw, and conversation picks up. Personally, I think the Brussels sprouts break the ice. Seared in a cast-iron pan and covered in an apricot glaze, these veggies get everyone’s attention.
“If you have to eat Brussels sprouts, this is the way to eat them,” says Bill Hance, a recent transplant to Mount Pleasant.
As we meander through the scenic city, Duggan points out where the old sea wall once stood and how coastal culture and climate influenced Lowcountry food traditions. At Oyster House, we have a private dining room to enjoy plates of Lowcountry red rice with andouille sausage, shrimp and grits, pimiento cheese fritters and she-crab soup.
“Those Brussels sprouts would be really good with this!” someone hollers out.
With barely enough room for dessert, we stop at Kaminsky’s across from the City Market for a generous serving of Tollhouse pie—a cookie pie covered in caramel, chocolate and pecans. While we compare notes on the day’s highlights, Orosz and her guests abandon plans for a light dinner later. “We’re too full!” she says.
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Columbia
What’s cooking on Main Street
There’s this fellow whose name keeps popping up in stories about Columbia’s Main Street: Gen. William T. Sherman. That 1865 day when the Union general’s soldiers burned their way through the capital city becomes a familiar reference point as tour guide Brian Cole leads a small group through downtown, past “one of the first buildings in Columbia to be rebuilt after Sherman burned the city” or “one of the few buildings that Sherman did not burn in the war.”
Recent history has seen the Main Street district enjoying a food renaissance, with new restaurants opening all the time. That’s good for Cole’s 4-year-old business, Columbia Food Tours, which introduces locals and visitors to what’s good to eat on and around Main.
“It took about a year and a half to get restaurants to want to sign on—they weren’t sure what a food tour was,” Cole says. Now, he has enough restaurants to ensure variety on his tours.
“One time, two restaurants served quail. It must have been on sale,” he jokes.
Our friendly little group of nine, all from the Columbia area, meets on a sunny day in front of the Statehouse, then crosses Gervais Street to start our tour on a high note: dessert.
Blue Flour Bakery opened here about a year ago. We each sit down to a preset plate of five freshly baked treats—a Parmesan-chive biscuit, maple-pecan pound cake, chocolate chip cookie, blonde brownie and raspberry thumbprint cookie, plus a glass of blueberry-hibiscus tea. Not your usual cup of tea? That’s a food-tour bonus—the chance to sample things you might otherwise miss.
Mercifully, Cole provides bags for our leftovers, and we march down Main with five more restaurants to go. Along the way, Cole points out Columbia’s first skyscraper and the 1913 Arcade Building with the funky underground that housed its own bar scene in the 1970s.
“It’s a weird place—it still really looks like the ’70s,” Cole says, with a heads up about plans for its coming renovation.
Next stop is Main Street Public House, opened about 1½ years ago. Here, we fill up on their signature pizzas and hot wings, as well as general manager John Stubing’s funny stories—such as how the owners earned some special attention from the fire department while blowtorching the wooden walls during remodeling.
As we leave, Ashley Schneider confides, “I’ve passed by this place a few times, and I’ve always wondered about it.” Her husband, Daniel, agrees: “Yeah, I walk down here all the time; I’ve never been in.” Just the introduction these restaurants want—you get a warm welcome and good food, and, hopefully, you come back.
We stop in Lula Drake Wine Parlor, another old building restored to new life. “The really cool part was they uncovered a trap door to a cellar that nobody had been in for 100 years,” Cole says, “and they found a trunk that looked like it could have come straight off the Titanic.” He says it was filled with personal items belonging to one Lula Drake, who ran a hat shop in this space.
After a small feast of pistachio hummus, feta cheese crostini and orange-zested hush puppies, it’s hard to think about eating again. But there’s no stopping now. We head toward Villa Tronco, the oldest restaurant in South Carolina, Cole says. Third-generation owner Carmella Roche is waiting for us with countless family stories, plus Italian egg rolls stuffed with cheese and peppers, and Italian iced sugar cookies baked from her grandmother’s recipe.
Trekking back down Main, Cole points out street art that is also changing the face of downtown. A row of orange and red chairs attached to metal drums, he says, is “the only place on Main Street you can play a drum.”
“In the last five years, Main Street has come a long, long way, from the (Saturday street) market, to all the new businesses, to the awesome food tour....” He pauses long enough to get the laugh he’s looking for.
The tour finishes strong: Oak Table serves up a rich sweet potato soup topped with toasted marshmallows, bacon jam, benne seeds, chili oil and microgreens. And finally, we head across the street to Bourbon, a whiskey bar and Cajun-Creole restaurant that wows us with a whiskey smash cocktail and a melt-in-your-mouth pork cheek on a grits cake.
Someone jokes about just lingering here at Bourbon to order a full dinner. As if.
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Greenville
Meet the chefs
Normally, you don’t get to meet the chefs who prepare your food, John Nolan tells his Greenville History Tours food tourists. That changes today. On his At the Chef’s Table Culinary Tour, interacting with the chefs is part of the package.
This “meet the chefs” tour consistently fills up. “I wanted that to be the focus of the experience at each place—have the chefs come out and explain the dishes and get personal with people,” says Nolan. “That’s a different twist.”
That’s perfect for Yuliya Yurko of Easley, a creative cook who likes to sample dishes in restaurants, then recreate them at home. Talking to Brian McKenna, kitchen manager at the all-organic Southern Pressed Juicery, Yurko quizzes him about the ingredients in his non-dairy cashew sour cream salad dressing, served with a walnut “meatball.”
“Everything here is raw and plant-based,” McKenna explains, listing his dressing ingredients for her.
It’s a light start to a full day. Visiting from Florida, food-tour aficionado Jill Richards describes what makes for a great tour: “It’s the guides, the food and the history, and you have to have some compactness to it,” Richards says. Most people only want to walk so far.
Nolan efficiently leads his 18 followers down a busy Main Street and wastes no time jumping into downtown history. A university art teacher and a history buff who wrote A Guide to Historic Greenville, he is well-prepared with a binder of oversized black-and-white photos showing previous incarnations of the places we are passing. He dishes nearly nonstop commentary about architecture, Civil Rights-era events that took place here, modern sidewalk art and the evolution of Main Street.
“I’m loving the history part of this,” says Elizabeth Duncan, a schoolteacher taking the tour with husband Jonathan as an anniversary gift to themselves. “We’ve only lived here two years, and we wanted to do something we’ve never done in our new city.”
At Nose Dive gastropub, our chef has prepared a bowl of charred cauliflower and shishito peppers. The occasional shishito carries a little extra heat, we are warned. “It’s a little like playing Russian roulette with the taste,” Nolan jests.
Back outside, we hear more tales of historic Greenville before crossing Main to Soby’s New South Cuisine. We have the place to ourselves, and both the food—crispy, deep-fried pork belly over a Brussels sprouts puree with a beet gastrique—and executive chef Shaun Garcia are a hit with our group.
A collector of old cookbooks, Garcia explains how he tries to teach history through the foods he cooks. “If I can make something even remotely as good as your grandma did, I’m onto something!” he says, earning applause for his food and his stories.
“This is very adventurous for me,” Joel Nulph of Greenville admits, digging into his dish. “I don’t usually do these types of things.” What things, I ask—the tour or these foods? “Yes,” he says.
With two more stops ahead, several folks are glad to be walking off calories. We trek down into Falls Park, where Passerelle Bistro serves up herbed chicken breasts with kale and roasted potatoes. Our food-loving group eats heartily while sharing recommendations for other food tours, restaurants and home recipes for macaroni and cheese.
Last stop is dessert at The Lazy Goat, overlooking the Reedy River and the historic structures across the water that once housed carriage makers and a Duke’s Mayonnaise factory. Pastry chef Amanda Mueller gives us all the details on her artistic plates of olive-oil cakes reflecting the restaurant’s Mediterranean flair, served with orange zest, strawberry ricotta, fruit compote and fried mint leaves. Almost too pretty to eat—almost.
It’s Nolan’s eighth dish of the day; he led a food-laden barbeque tour this morning. Showing us smartphone photos of plates piled high with barbeque, he says only four people have ever managed to eat everything on that tour.
It’s been hours since this morning’s lone hard-boiled egg, and Keith Lindsey is finally full, but he’s ready to be person number five. “Challenge accepted!” he says—next time.
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Food tours in South Carolina
Food tours are showing up all over South Carolina, with more in the planning stages.
Upstate:
Greenville History Tours
Four different culinary tours are available, offered Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays or Saturdays, depending on the tour. Tickets range from $39 to $49.
(864) 567-3940; greenvillehistorytours.com
Taste of the South Culinary Tours
Tours visit four restaurants in Landrum and are available by reservation only, Tuesdays through Saturdays.
(828) 817-1079; ourcarolinafoothills.com
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Midlands:
Columbia Food Tours
Main Street tours are offered on Saturdays. Tickets are $45 per person, $40 for military.
Two Gals and a Fork Food Tours
Tours are usually offered on Saturdays in Columbia’s Vista area and in downtown Newberry. Tickets are $43.
(803) 360-0578 or (803) 260-7992; twogalsfoodtours.com
Aiken Bites & Sites
Walking food tours of downtown Aiken. Tickets at $59 per person.
(833) 901-3663; aikenbitesandsites.com.
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Lowcountry:
Charleston Culinary Tours
Six different tours are available. Some are offered Mondays through Saturdays; others are offered only on specific days of the week. Tickets range from $40 to $75.
(843) 259-2966; charlestonculinarytours.com
Charleston Food Tours
Seven different options are available; five of them are walking tours. Some are offered seven days a week; others are offered only on specific days of the week. Tickets are $60.
(843) 727-1100; charlestonfoodtours.com
Chow-Down Charleston
Tours are available Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets are $58.
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Tips for making the most of a walking food tour
- “Come with an empty stomach and an open mind,” Charleston tour guide Patrick Duggan advises. Your tour might not look or taste exactly like what you expected, but you’ll be well-fed and you’ll learn something new.
- Make a reservation. Many tours fill up well in advance.
- Don’t eat before you go. The combination of small plates from all restaurant stops will be at least the equivalent of one full meal.
- Wear comfortable shoes, and dress for the weather. Most tours take place rain or shine.
- Don’t be late. Tours stay on tight schedules to accommodate participating restaurants.
- Some tours may cater to dietary restrictions or food allergies. Ask ahead about whether menus can be adapted to special needs.
- If you order anything not included on your tour, such as alcoholic beverages, be sure to tip your server.