STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Caroline Fisher loves food, loves Steamboat Springs and loves sharing both loves through her business, Steamboat Springs Food Tours.
“It’s a really wonderful way to learn about a town,” Fisher said of food tours. “You get some of the history, and you learn about the architecture while you are being led around town by a tour guide and tasting different foods from multiple restaurants.”
Fisher got the idea of hosting a food tour several years ago while on vacation in Carlsbad, California. The life-long food server thought the idea of a tour would be a good business in Steamboat.
A few months later, she took a “New Food Pro” workshop from a successful food tour operator in Chicago and spent the following winter reading and learning as much as she could about her hometown. Much of it she knew, but now, she is an expert.
“I spent the winter reading all about Steamboat Springs history,” Fisher said. “That spring, I approached several restaurants with the idea of a tour. They had never heard of a food tour, but there was a lot of interest.”
She launched her new food tour business in Steamboat during the summer of 2017. The tours teach visitors a little bit about Steamboat and a lot about its great chefs and world class restaurants. Her business allows those who take her tour to sample some of the food and taste some of the local spirits if they wish.
“I’m a food concierge and an ambassador for restaurants in Steamboat Springs,” said Fisher, who has also run a bed and breakfast and currently operates an Airbnb.
Fisher’s daytime tour, Bite of the Boat, costs $65 per person — $79 with an alcohol pairing — and is offered from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays in the winter. She is hoping to expand it to four days per week in the summer.
The tour starts on the rooftop deck at Salt & Lime before heading to Skull Creek Greek. The tour stops by Carl Howelsen’s statue on Lincoln Avenue on the way to Elevated Olive of Steamboat, where the owners introduce visitors to the many varieties of olive oils they sell and talk about the process that goes into creating them. Then, it is off to Yampy’s were guests enjoy a crepe and a cocktail.
The tour includes a lot of information about many downtown attractions, the Utes, the Crawford family who founded Steamboat and the more than 150 mineral springs that can be found in town.
The daytime tour then goes to Back Door Grill before ending at Creekside Cafe.
“Every day-time tour I had last summer had guests on the books, so that is going really well,” Fisher said.
This fall, she started offering the Sip and Savor Happy Hour tour for those 21 and older from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. The tour, which costs $95 per person with cocktails and beer, includes four different restaurants — Laundry, Mountain Tap Brewery, Bésame and O’Neil’s Tavern and Grill.
Fisher said parties of four or more can also contact her for private tours.
“It’s a really fun way to sample multiple restaurants, so that you know which ones you want to go back to,” Fisher said.
Reservations for Steamboat Springs Food Tours can be made by calling 970-439-3101 or visiting ssfoodtours.com.
“I tell people my life is like a vacation” Fisher said. “I help people with their vacation when they come to Steamboat, and then I go on vacation when I have time off.”
[“source=steamboatpilot”]
