Carpe DC Food Tours To Launch Alexandria Tour

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Since its founding five years ago, Carpe DC Food Tours have focused on notable neighborhoods of DC. For the first time, the group will launch a tour in the suburbs.
What better place to start than Old Town Alexandria?

The Boutique Old Town Food Tour will kick off Friday, March 22 with weekly tours offered on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The three-hour tour costs $89 per person, and a portion of each sale feeds one low-income person through Bread for the City.

Mary Collins, who founded the group with her husband Stefan, tells Patch starting an Alexandria tour "was always on our bucket list." Like Carpe DC's other tours, the Alexandria tour will guide participants through five locally-owned restaurants. Each restaurant provides tapa-style tastings, collectively the size of a full meal. One of the restaurants will feature an alcohol tasting, and the last stop will serve a dessert. Vegetarian ticket options are available.

The one catch? You don't find out which restaurants are on the tour until you show up. It's all part of the experience.

In a nutshell, Collins says tours "tell the story of the neighborhood through food." Tours also include stops at local landmarks and discussions about the participating restaurants, the evolution of the neighborhood and how food ties into Alexandria's history.

While Collins says the tours are something visitors seek out, numerous locals express interest. "They learn something new. They may want to learn about changes in the area," says Collins.

The group's other tours explore the food of U Street and Georgetown and street art of U Street. There are also seasonal events, which will include the Alexandria Tastes of Spring Cherry Blossom Food Crawl on April 7.

Collins says food tour tickets have provided 16,000 meals for low-income people. "It's a nice way to give back to the area you're traveling in," she says.

Fore more information about the upcoming Alexandria tour, visit carpedcfoodtours.com.