Try some of New York City’s best street food, and learn how food offers an amazing window into the life of a city and its neighborhoods and people. On our Food Cart Tours of Manhattan’s Financial District and Midtown, we introduce visitors and lifelong New Yorkers alike to the amazing tastes and stories of the city’s street vendor community, offering the opportunity to not only taste amazing dishes from all over the world cooked up on the sidewalk, but also to get an insider’s perspective on the industry. 5% of all Food Cart Tour ticket sales are donated to the Street Vendor Project.
Wafels and Dinges Factory Tour
Have you ever wanted to see what it takes to run a successful street food business behind the scenes? This tour will take you inside de Royal Dinges Factory, the commissary, production space, and headquarters of one of New York City’s most popular street food brands, Wafels & Dinges. On this guided tour, we will show you how they make their spectacular Liège wafel dough and delicious ice cream to supply their constellation of carts, trucks, kiosks, and cafés; you will learn how those carts and trucks are stored, supplied, and maintained; and you will get an insider’s look at this dynamic and growing business. You will even get the chance to put your hands in some dough, and cook your own fresh-made wafel in their custom-made irons. This tour is a great complement to our Food Cart Tours of Manhattan that explores NYC’s food systems, manufacturing, and entrepreneurship.
Essex Market Tour
This tasting exploration showcases the vendors of the Lower East Side’s Essex Market, founded in 1940 and now housed in a new, bustling facility home to over 40 vendors. This 90-minute walking and tasting tour visits 6-8 vendors, with generous tastings that may include top-quality olive oils, tacos, empanadas, fresh-baked breads, handmade chocolates, and a selection of cheeses and charcuterie. Along the way, we will explore the past and present of New York City’s public market system, from open-air pushcart markets, to the retail and wholesale network built by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, to markets’ role today providing quality food to communities and creating opportunities for food entrepreneurs to launch and grow new businesses.
Moore Street Market: Immigrant Foodways Tour
From farms to pushcarts to public markets, this 2-hour walking and tasting tour explores historical aspects of New York’s food system and the influence of Caribbean and Latin American cultures and cuisines on the past and present of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Once known for its pickles and kosher meat, today the eastern section of Williamsburg serves up herbal tea remedies from Mexico, sounds of salsa, and traditional ingredients. Based on more than 20 oral history interviews with neighborhood residents and local business owners, and on original archival research, this tour explores the history of Brooklyn’s “Avenue of Puerto Rico” and takes an in-depth look at the Moore Street Market, built in 1941 to mark the end of the pushcart era and today a centerpiece of the Spanish-speaking community. The tour includes 6-8 generous tastings from market vendors and local eateries.