New Indianapolis food tours take you to top restaurants
Bluebeard, Milktooth, Vida and downtown steakhouses are some of the restaurants you'll visit
Liz Biro- Saturday afternoon tours along the Cultural Trail in Fountain Square
- Weeknight tours in Broad Ripple, Downtown and Flethcher Place
- Food and cocktails included
Eat, drink, talk, walk. Those are the steps of new food tours in Indianapolis.
Local foodies guide you to their favorite restaurants in Indy’s most popular neighborhoods on one company's tours. Another organization puts you on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail with a food writer who brings you to some of the city’s most highly rated restaurants.
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Indianapolis digital food network Eat Here Indy taps its food-obsessed fans and influencers to lead walking tours of Nora, Broad Ripple, Downtown and Fletcher Place for ages 21 and older. Guides share details and insider scoop about restaurants and where locals eat.
Weekday tours running from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. visit three restaurants in less than a two-mile radius. Groups of 12 to 18 people drive their own vehicles to the first restaurant and then walk as a group to the others before circling back to the first stop.
The tours will resemble progressive dinners, including drinks, Eat Here Indy co-founder Bradley Houser said. “The restaurants do have their own ability to essentially do what they want with that dinner,” he said. “So there might be a surprise at each restaurant, which is pretty cool.”
Participating restaurants include top names like Late Harvest Kitchen, Bluebeard, The Vanguard, Vida, Oca, Rail Epicurean, Hyde Park Prime, Nada andPublic Greens. The tours launch April 23 and cost $40 to $60 per person. Score tickets by searching "Indy Food Tours" at eventbrite.com.
Cultural Trail food tours
The Indianapolis Cultural Trail food tours for ages 21 and older explore nationally recognized restaurants in Fountain Square and Fletcher Place, including Milktooth.
Since its debut in 2014, Milktooth has become perhaps Indianapolis’ best-known restaurant, even rivaling famous St. Elmo Steakhouse. In 2016, Conde Nast Traveler put it on a list headlined “The best restaurants in the world: Two hundred and seven of the greatest restaurants around the globe, according to those who eat, cook and travel for a living.”
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Indy food writer and WFYI Eat Drink Indiana Radio host Jolene Ketzenberger is among guides leading the 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon tours, which cover about four hours and six to seven restaurants.
Tours, for ages 21 and older, cost $65 to $75 per person. Find schedules and tickets starting April 2 at indyculturaltrail.org/alongthetrail/foodtours.
Cultural Trail events already include bike tours. As Indy's food scene blossomed over the past six years, many of the top restaurants popped up along the trail's Fletcher Place and Fountain Square corridors, prompting development of food tours, Cultural Trail executive director Kären Haley said.
"It seemed like a natural fit to expand our tour offerings to include food tours," she said.
A March test run billed Explore the Avenue hit seven restaurants including Bluebeard, Rook, 12.05 Distillery, Three Carrots and Thunderbird. Food and drink samples were served at each stop as Ketzenberger shared stories about “local food heros,” Indy life and the Cultural Trail's impact on the city.
Another March tour titled The Ultimate Foodie Tour took guests behind the scenes and introduced them to chefs at six food stops including Tortas, Amelia’s Bakery, Rook and Milktooth. Food and drink samples were served at each stop.
Tour proceeds support Cultural Trail operations, Haley said.
The new Cultural Trail tours and the Eat Here Indy tours are in addition to the existing Taste Indy Food Tours, which offers experiences at Mass Ave., City Market and Fountain Square, as well as pub crawls, progressive dinners and private events.
Follow IndyStar food writer Liz Biro on Twitter: @lizbiro, Instagram: @lizbiro, and on Facebook. Call her at (317) 444-6264.