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Tastes from the world: Carlsbad Food Tours

Posted on December 14, 2016 |

Carlsbad, also known as “The Village by the Sea” by the locals, is a tourist destination on the Pacific coastline in northern San Diego County, California. This quaint European type village has history and great food, and this week, on our section about food and travels around the world, we talked to our friends Cherimarie Poulos CEO and Brad Poulos CFO Carlsbad Food Tours, a movable walking and eating feast.

Cheri was born & raised in California. She has lived in San Diego over 20 years, her children were born in the area. She has a strong connection to Carlsbad, in fact one of her daughters was Miss Carlsbad 2005. So she voted herself to be Mrs. Carlsbad. Now the Chief Foodie and Founder of Carlsbad Food Tours! She loves Carlsbad and is happy to share her knowledge about the local history and great eateries in the Carlsbad Village.

Cheri had a wonderful career as a Registered Nurse for 34 years. When getting ready to retire she realized that she was still relatively young and could do other things at this point of her life. So she took her love of food and history and put them together to create “Carlsbad Food Tours in May 2014. And this is what they tell us about this adventure:

Cheri says:

In 2013, during an anniversary weekend, my husband and I went on a similar food tour in Carmel and had a fabulous time. The thought came to me that “We have a village, with some wonderful restaurants”, why can’t we have a food tour in Carlsbad? So after returning to Carlsbad and checking to make sure we did not in fact already have a tour. I said to myself, “I’d better jump on this idea before someone else does”. But where do I start, having not owned my own business before I was not sure how to get started. So I decided to get counsel by calling the owner of the Carmel Food Tour, Stacy, and ask her for guidance.

The first thing she said is I needed to contact Shane, owner of Food Tour Pros in Chicago and enroll into their courses, he also owns Chicago Food Planet. Taking the course with Shane was the best advice I could have gotten. His course gave me a template on the how to set up my business. He taught us how to present the idea to the vendors, how to price the tour and how to set it up to be successful from day one. After going to Chicago, I returned with so much enthusiasm and ideas! I immediately went about town pitching the idea and gathering my vendors together. I also spent an enormous amount of time studying the history and culture of Carlsbad, as well as getting the “back story” on the restaurants in town.

Choosing the restaurants and food tastings was fun but also difficult due to having so many great restaurants in Carlsbad. So I initially focused on my two main items: Great Food & History! I chose eateries that had both of these characteristics. I also wanted to spotlight unique family owned places that we not easily repeated in other cities. I wanted our tour guests to get a taste of what Carlsbad had to offer.

My other goal was to keep my route under 2-2.5 miles walking distance. We did not want our guests to be exhausted at the end of the tour. So when I finally chose my eateries and set up my tour, I called Shane and told him I was ready for my walk thru visit. He flew from Chicago to do my tour, and of course took a lot of notes and made several suggestions at the end of the tour on how I could improve my product. It was hard to hear that my tour needed some improvements but in the end we created a better experience for our guests. The first year of the business I continued to work as a nurse doing 9 hour shifts during the week and tours on the weekends. So, it was a pretty busy time, but the tours were doing well so I was happy.

The second year I did retire from nursing and decided I set the business up as a seasonal business because it is a retirement job and I had told my husband that I would do some sailing with him in retirement. So I close the business from January to mid May and now go live on our boat, which is currently in the Bahamas. So we have the best of both worlds: traveling and enjoying the water and then back to Carlsbad to a house that does not move and a fun job to keep me busy.

Eat Your Heart Out in Carlsbad… 

Carlsbad Food Tours offers the tastiest history lesson in town, serving up tidbits about Carlsbad’s early years as well as samples from local cuisine. This aspect of culinary tourism allows locals and visitors alike, experience the local scene through gastronomic offerings.

Taking a walking tour of beautiful downtown Carlsbad-by-the-Sea allows you to experience the wonder of early Carlsbad California, while sipping some of our local wines while appreciating some of Carlsbad’s charm and learning a bit of Carlsbad’s unique history and culture. We believe food tastes better when you know the food “story” – the background of the eatery, the tasting recipe’s history and methodology, along with insider owner stories. We invite our guests to indulge their “inner foodie” and act like a local, if only for a day. We take you off the beaten path and give you an insider’s view of old and new Carlsbad. Our tour includes historical stops including one of the oldest businesses in Carlsbad “Lola’s Mexican Deli”.

Going on a food tour can be a healthy lifestyle choice

Our healthy foodie tour also encourages healthy lifestyle choices: walking, small frequent meals, and tastings that include a Mediterranean diet, red wine, alkaline water, dark chocolate and socialization! Come and see for yourself why going on a food tour can be a healthy lifestyle choice.

Deli shop in Carlsbad

And talking about Carlsbad…

Carlsbad is an upscale coastal resort city with old-world charm in northern San Diego County, in Southern California.

Carlsbad’s has amazing food and going on our food tour is one of the best ways to try it. Little Italy in North County San Diego is what we say here, because Carlsbad has a heavy Italian Population, which started with the Tuna Industry and now we have a lot of great Italian restaurants including: Caldo Pomodoro, Vigilucci’s and Gregorio’s just to mention a few. Some of my favorite tastings are the baked artichoke hearts and garlic bread from Caldo and the Vodka mushroom pasta from Vigilucci’s.

Carlsbad, California

The city has mild Mediterranean weather throughout the year and calls itself the golf capital of the world with four award winning courses within the city and many others nearby.

40% of Carlsbad’s land has been reserved for open space to protect its natural setting and beauty, resulting in miles of walking trails in its rolling hills and along its three lagoons. Eleven miles of beaches and graceful historic buildings from the 1880’s add to its allure. Fortune Magazine has rated Carlsbad as one of the five best places to retire in the U.S.

Named after the famous spa in Germany due to the qualities of its fresh water, Carlsbad’s growth as a resort was quick in the 1880’s. Agricultural development followed with citrus, avocados and olives becoming the economic backbone of the area. Carlsbad now has a population of 105,000 and boasts the headquarters of medical technology and manufacturing firms as well as the first LEGOLAND outside of Europe!

Carlsbad is also proud of Flower Fields, an amazing early March through May display of colorful giant tecolote ranunculus and an entertaining sweet pea maze. In May and November, the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce hosts the Carlsbad Village Street Faire, the largest one-day fairs in the nation with 900 vendors and 100,000 attendees each.

Beautiful panoramas a wait from the beaches’ bluffs, reefs and sand. Surfing, swimming, walking along the shore and fishing are enjoyed by residents and visitors alike. Carlsbad is a winning combination of resort and working city, refreshing open space and historic structures, beauty and calm.

Uniqueness of Carlsbad Food Tours

Location, location, location… Carlsbad is a great place for family vacations, getaways and staycations! One of my mantras is come for the beach and stay for the food. Carlsbad has a plethora of great restaurants in town. We specialize in Italian eateries from Sicily to Milan we have got you covered. Mexican restaurants are also very popular in Carlsbad. We have a very strong Hispanic heritage, with some of the oldest businesses in Carlsbad having a Mexican flair.

Because Carlsbad is known as the Golf capital of the US, we have a good variety of luxury resorts and restaurants that cater to a higher socioeconomic level. Carlsbad’s gourmet eateries include; Land & Water Company, with responsible, traceable seafood, humanely raised and purely natural terrestrial proteins…organically grown and locally harvested produce. They have a seasonal menu is crafted from scratch by our chefs, who contribute years of experience into each dish. Farm to table venues West Steak & Seafood and Bistro West. French classics like Paon Restaurant & Wine bar which is set in an upscale country-home space with gardens, patios, a piano bar & private rooms.

with Carlsbad Food Tours eat like the locals

Tasting food from the world in Carlsbad…

We showcase the richness of Carslbad food heritage by visiting a California-style cafe, a European-style restaurant, an Italian eatery, a Mexican deli and other restaurants and specialty shops that are uniquely representative of Carlsbad! All this accompanied by local drinks from the area! Delicious isnt it?

You can read more about tour and travel stories around the world at our blog. And in case you have one, please send it over, we´ll be happy to feature you!

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