Athens Food Tours showcases the local food scene — but mostly downtown.
Though Athens Food Tours most frequently provides showings of downtown venues, they encourage their patrons to try other neighborhoods, such as Five Points and on Prince Avenue. Sometimes the company uses discounts as persuasion tools. ALLISON LOVE/Staff
Although the business reaches five areas — downtown, Five Points, Normaltown, Farmers Market and Prince Avenue Corridor — AFT tours downtown restaurants more than any other area.
Mary Charles Howard, owner of AFT, said the company schedules tours based on customers requests.
People ask for the downtown tour more, making it more popular than the others.
“I think it’s a familiarity thing for people,” she said. “The concept of a food tour is already unknown to people, so they opt for the safer and more familiar downtown area.”
Stefano Volpi, owner of La Dolce Vita, said his downtown restaurant hosts tours every week, if not multiple times a week.
“We get as little as three people and as many as 20,” he said.
But, for some Prince Avenue restaurants, demand is slower. The Grit hasn’t seen a tour in almost a year, said manager Lawson Grice.
“I guess people just aren’t signing up as much,” he said. “The economy is lower and people aren’t doing great expenses.”
Normaltown restaurant Heirloom Cafe & Fresh Market also experiences a smaller number of tours.
“We had a couple in the fall, but we didn’t have any more until just recently,” said Jessica Rothacker, owner of Heirloom Cafe. “In the past month, we’ve had four.”
Howard said a tour has not come through The Grit recently because the Prince Avenue tours coincide with its busy times.
“Each restaurant has certain requests for the food tour,” she said. “The Grit’s request is that we not come during busy times.”
Still, whether a tour comes through once a week or once a year, the restaurants showcase their food and share their stories.
Rothacker said Heirloom Cafe prepares three mini-versions of its menu’s courses, shares the restaurant’s history and answers any possible questions.
“We want to make it a real experience for them,” she said.
Although many people request downtown, Howard said she tries to encourage exploration. She incorporates discount deals to non-downtown tours to promote the “unknown.”
“I guess a positive spin on these less taken tours is that they are the unknown gems of the Athens Food Tours scene,” she said.
And once the customers are brought in, the restaurants do what they do best.
“This experience with great food and quality service plus a bonus story of hearing from the owners and servers about the history of each business guarantees these food tour customers will return as restaurant customers,” she said.