Would the epicure on your holiday list adore exploring a new place through food and wine or meeting with chefs, farmers, and artisans to taste local specialties? If so, here are two Michigan companies with offerings to consider. Whether it’s enjoying a progressive authentic Polish dinner in Hamtramck or sipping Chianti in Tuscan vineyards, adventure awaits the gourmand in your life.
Detroit History Tours
This December marks 13 years since historian and Detroit History Club founder Bailey Sisoy-Moore started teaching others about Detroit’s history through the club’s events and Detroit History Tours. On the tours, her team of about 20 historians and history professors presents information that’s triple-vetted with references, delivering material through contests and games.
Their food tours — which feature some of Detroit’s quintessential diners and dives — have expanded significantly since their inception in 2017. Guests get hands-on experience with chefs and meet owners of iconic restaurants to learn their historical relevance (for example, learning about suffragist history in Detroit through the lens of women-owned bars) with demos and tastings.
Locations rotate twice per year with stops that include Yum Village, Mario’s Restaurant, Scotty Simpson’s Fish & Chips, the original Buddy’s Pizza, Marcus Hamburgers, and Polish Village Cafe. For Sisoy-Moore, it’s about guests having fun in a city she loves to celebrate and share.
“Our biggest thing is we love what we do,” Sisoy-Moore says. “We’re born-and-raised Detroiters, and it’s an honor of a lifetime to get to show off our city.”
The full schedule for food tours in 2025 was not yet confirmed at press time, except for the bimonthly Detroit Classics tour, which features Motor City staples like fish, burgers, and pizza, and the Meandering Meal, a monthly walkable progressive dinner where guests taste Hamtramck delicacies and meet the chefs who made them famous.
Tours run three to four hours with 50 participants by bus or 25 on foot, include a full meal, and are led by a Detroit History Tours historian, a chef, and a destination expert. Prices range between $78 and $103 per person.
Additional tours and pricing are available at detroithistorytours.com.
Zingerman’s Food Tours
Zingerman’s tours are so successful in part because of the relationships the team has developed around the world over 25 years. They began in an organic way — customers became interested in joining Zingerman’s co-founder Ari Weinzweig on trips after hearing stories about sourcing specialty products abroad for his restaurants and mail-order service. The first trips centered on meeting specialty olive oil, vinegar, and cheese makers in Italy. But the company is continually making new connections, and the tours now go to multiple countries.
The 2025 itinerary features trips to remote areas of Tuscany, Piedmont, and Sicily in Italy; Oaxaca, Mexico; the Basque region of Spain; France’s Lyon, Jura, Champagne, and Paris; Northern Ireland; Budapest, Hungary; Seoul, South Korea; and Copenhagen, Denmark. Guests meet and work with artisanal food producers in their homes, restaurants, and workshops.
Guests may find themselves cooking on a traditional Mexican comal in Oaxaca, shopping in Budapest’s Great Market Hall, visiting hazelnut farms in Piedmont, or fishing and filleting their catch at Portrush Harbor in Northern Ireland. Managing partner Kristie Brablec, who started at Zingerman’s in 2004, served in multiple roles before turning her attention to Zingerman’s Food Tours in 2016. For her, life changed after joining one of the Tuscany tours.
“I was committed to the organization but hadn’t really found my place,” Brablec says. “But once I was there, I knew instantly where I needed to be and wrote up the vision before I got home.” Two years later, she was a partner. Brablec sees the food tours as a conduit for people interested in learning about food and culture in an immersive way.
“We provide the opportunity to go to places that the average traveler can’t access themselves because of our connections in the culinary world,” Brablec says.
The trips are intimate, with 16 guests, a Zingerman’s host, and a local guide.
Each is a five-to-10-day rare deep dive into a specific region through the eyes of the locals. Tours include breakfasts, regional specialties, and most lunches and dinners. Accommodations are in boutique hotels (depending on the location) with private luxury transport. Prices range from $7,800 to $12,500 per person (airfare is not included).
For more information, visit zingermansfoodtours.com.
This story originally appeared in the November 2024 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our digital edition will be available on Nov. 6.
|
|
|
