On that tour, Westcott brings the adults to some of the best restaurants in town, while Carrigan takes the students to all-you-can-eat buffets and other spots for the top “bite for your buck.” But their most popular tour is the “Best of Portsmouth,” which focuses on eateries featured on TV. Portsmouth Eats reflects that diversity, with a White Tablecloth Tour, a Sweets and Treats tour, guided by Carrigan, and a Welcome UNH tour, for college students and their parents. With as many restaurant seats as residents, Portsmouth is a serious dining out town, with a plethora of options to suit every taste.
I want them to come away feeling welcomed.” “When people come to Portsmouth, this is what they are seeing. “Of course, they have to have fabulous food, but they also have to be friendly,” she says. Westcott also wants customers to have a great time, so she chooses restaurant partners with care. “I want people to feel they got huge value for their money.” “I like to make sure everyone is topped off,” says Westcott, who started Portsmouth Eats in fall 2012 with her 16-year-old son, Jonathan Carrigan. You won’t leave a Portsmouth Eats restaurant tasting tour hungry if Colleen Westcott has anything to say about it. For some reason, that isn’t often the case with the food tour patrons.” “Why? Our guests go back and make dinner reservations. “We work with several restaurant partners who’ve dropped their food tours and now work exclusively with us,” he says. While City Wine Tours does offer small bites to pair with the free-flowing wine, guests will probably leave hungry- and that’s a good thing, says Andrew, at least in the eyes of the restaurants. Lebel, who holds a Certified Wine Specialist designation from the Society of Wine Educators, worked with luminaries like Robert Mondavi before joining City Wine Tours, and also runs her own agency representing small wineries on the East Coast. That means guides have to think on their feet, and have a deep knowledge of oenology. Wine and food pairings are chosen by the restaurant-the wine ambassadors don’t get an advance heads-up on the selections. Each tour stops at three restaurants, sampling two wines at each location. To start, Judy Lebel, “wine ambassador” as City Wine Tours calls its guides, welcomed guests with generous pours of a delightful rosé sparkling wine and explained how the wine got its pink hue.įor participants who were interested in wine education, Lebel talked about regions and bottle shapes, then walked them through the different steps involved in tasting wine.
Several locals-and a couple from distant Perth, Australia-were among the imbibers on a recent City Wine Tour of Boston’s South End, meeting up at the handcrafted zinc bar at cozy Gaslight Brasserie. “Locals come on the tours again and again, they bring friends, and then spread the word about how much fun it was to drink wine in Boston.” “We have tons of Bostonians, or people who live within driving distance of Boston, join us,” says Dan Andrew, CEO, who launched City Wine Tours with some partners in 2011.
With several options around town, and a new venture into New York City, these tours invite an afternoon of indulging in good wine at some of the city’s best restaurants. That’s certainly the case with City Wine Tours in Boston.
Laskey says Maine Foodie Tours attracts some guests who only vacation where they can go on a food tour, but these tours also attract their share of locals seeking a new way to see their hometowns, entertain out-of-towners, or indulge in a mini-vacation.
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