Tucson, Arizona:
The first UNESCO City of
Gastronomy in the U.S.
event includes visits to four downtown
establishments for exclusive, specially
designed tastings. You can book a large
group for a private experience, or if your
group is smaller, you can join locals for
a true taste of Huntsville.
Ashley Ryals, owner and founder of
Homegrown Huntsville, which coordi-
nates Dine and Dash, explains why this
is the perfect group activity.
“It’s an exciting opportunity to visit
several restaurants and to interact with
locals,” she says. “However, if your group
is 30 or more, we can host private tours
and progressive dinners tailored to your
specific needs.”
If your (small) group wants to cook
what they eat, you’re in luck. Local
chef and cookbook author C.C. Fridlin
conducts classes throughout the year
in various venues. If you’re not exactly
Rachael Ray or Gordon Ramsay and
would prefer chatting instead of actu-
ally cooking, James Beard-nominated
chef James Boyce holds special events
and meet-ups at his three Huntsville
restaurants: Cotton Row, Commerce
Kitchen and Pane e Vino.
It’s not just Huntsville’s food scene
that is on the upswing; the city has the
largest number of breweries per capita
of any city in Alabama. Your group can
vis it two of the breweries at Campus No.
805, a repurposed middle school that is
now a major entertainment complex.
Another way for craft beer lovers to
enjoy breweries, tap rooms and bottle
shops is on the Downtown Huntsville
Craft Beer Trail. Groups can get free trail
cards, and once they visit all 10 stops on
the trail, they will receive a special “Trail
Boss” bottle opener.
Huntsville has a number of food fes-
tivals spread throughout the year, from
the Whistlestop Weekend (celebrating
the state’s barbecue heritage) to the Big
Spring Crush Wine Festival (Alabama’s
first winery competition). Perhaps most
interesting is the annual Redstone
Arsenal Oktoberfest, a traditional German
celebration with an Alabama twist.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist
to understand why Huntsville’s food
scene has reached stratospheric heights.
For more information, email the CVB’s
Pam Williams at [email protected] or
visit huntsville.org.
Raise your hand if you knew that in
2015, Tucson was named a UNESCO City
of Gastronomy, joining cities in Brazil,
China and Sweden and becoming the
first in the U.S. to earn the designation.
Much of it no doubt stems from
Tucson having what it calls “The Best
23 Miles of Mexican Food” this side of
the border. It’s not just the Mexican
influence, however, as Anglo and Native
American cuisines also factor into the
area’s rich culinary heritage.
The best way to experience all three
is on one of the many food tours.
Tucson Food Tours, the city’s original
walking food tour, is included in the
book “100 Things to do in Tucson Before
You Die.” Specializing in custom tours
for small or large groups, the staff will
handle all the planning for you.
Want a side of history with your hue-
vos? Or tall tales dished out with your
tamales? A Taste of Tucson Downtown is
a guided culinary and cultural tour of the
historical downtown area that combines
regional food (tastings at five restau-
rants) with history, art and architecture.
Sonoran hot dog, Tucson
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