Feel like a local...
When you join a walking food tour, you win! As a guest, you gain new insights to the downtown areas and experience first-hand a cross-section of the locally-owned downtown area eating establishments. Our guides enhance the guest experience by sharing local culture, history, fun stories and information about where to shop and eat.
Our firmly planted roots…
How did Triangle Food Tour get started? Quite simply, there was a confluence of events revolving around food and an unbridled enthusiasm for the Triangle area that one day all came together. Leigh and Peter had been living in the Triangle. They were familiar with walking food tours (found in most major cities) and had personally gone on a couple and loved the experience. One day in 2007, during a meeting with some of the folks from the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, they brought the subject up, talked about the value for downtown visitors and observed that Raleigh did not have one of these. Their answer back was- why don’t you do it? They said, “why not!”
In early 2008, they launched Triangle Food Tour, offering the first food tour in the Triangle, with two different downtown Raleigh walking food tours. Soon, tours expanded to all corners of the Triangle (Raleigh, Chapel Hill & Carrboro, Durham and Cary).
New roots are growing…
I took over the reins in early 2018 when Peter and Leigh retired to the coast – lucky! Growing up in the South, I was always the first at the dinner table and happy to do the dishes in order to enjoy some of mom’s homemade food. Food and family have always gone together for me. My best Christmas memories were not the gifts, but arriving at my grandparents to find a bowl of homemade chicken soup and chocolate chip cookies waiting at the dining table. Both my grandmothers were great cooks as is my mother. Me, I focus on the eating and praising of the chef. I’m a better eater then a cook!
I put myself through college working in the restaurant community – I did everything from waiting, running food to bartending to hosting. Working with independent restaurant is a natural fit for me coupled with 20+ experience planning events in the hospitality filed. I love showing off the restaurants and downtowns to locals and visitors alike.
Your Tour Guides….
Sarah
Raleigh Guide
Hi! My name is Sarah and I’ve lived in (and loved) Raleigh since I was 5! I’m not always great at walking backwards and talking but I’m getting better at it each year. I love sharing my enthusiasm for Raleigh and good food to anyone who’ll listen, new or old. I don’t consider myself a food snob, but I do love trying the latest things and really anything in season or creative/unusual. I’m really passionate about history and love sharing the amazing story that have come to life for me since being a tour guide:) I really think this is the best way to spend your Saturday and look forward to meeting you!
Bob
Raleigh Guide
Hello, and welcome to Triangle Food and City Tours! I’m Bob Lisson, card-carrying North Carolinian (41 years and counting) after enjoying an upbringing in the Boston area.
As a professional tour director and licensed DC/NYC sightseeing guide, it’s always a thrill to help folks experience local history, culture and food wherever we travel. Yet, It’s a special joy and privilege to share Raleigh’s own history and thriving food scene with you, right here in my backyard. Whether you are a neighbor or visiting from afar, lace-up your walking shoes and loosen those belts…we’ll have a fun and delicious time. See you soon!
Melissa
Raleigh Guide
Originally from Florida, I’ve lived in Raleigh since 2016. I’ve backpacked all over the world, but my favorite cuisines from Peru and India. I love ice cream too and I’m excited to be a guide and show you all around downtown Raleigh as we eat at some great restaurants.
Enjoy New Food…
The food culture has grown and is evolving in the Triangle over the past decade, with each Triangle town offering a unique one-of-a-kind experience. On a Triangle Food and City Tour, many different dining options are highlighted. Whether it’s a combined husband and wife local butcher and dessert restaurant stop, a Mediterranean delicatessen, local craft brewery, historic favorite southern restaurant, the best homemade, local ice cream or pie shop, an epicurean market and café, Irish pub or a local bakery with mouth-watering desserts and breads, you’ll experience a culinary landscape in all corners of the Triangle, from an established restaurant to one of the many new, unique venues.
Our goal…
You go away loving our partners and cities as much as we love them. We can’t wait to explore the food scene with you. As Julia Child says so well, ‘Bon Appetite’.
Jacquelyn
