The story below is from our November/December 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Photo above: Tour Roanoke has been the proud recipient of many awards over the years, including the Tourism Ambassador Award by Virginia’s Blue Ridge (2015).
Photos Courtesy of Tour Roanoke
This year, Tour Roanoke celebrates a decade of partnering with some of the city’s most iconic restaurants and eateries to showcase Roanoke’s culture.
It was an article that Larry Landolt found online that first sparked the idea of starting a tour business. After some more digging, he learned that the culinary tourism industry was on the rise and that many small companies were cropping up in cities throughout the country. Intrigued by the prospect of establishing something similar in Roanoke, Landolt and his wife ventured to Chicago to attend a three-day class taught by Shane Kost, the man credited with creating the structure of modern food tours.
“This class completely changed our perception of how the tour and the tour business operated,” says Landolt.
His background in event and festival management also helped Landolt tremendously when it came to starting a touring company of his own. He used a similar approach to the one he applied when working on organizing some of Roanoke’s most iconic events, like the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Shamrock Festival and Party in the Park (now Party in Elmwood), but shrunk the scale. “We envisioned them as mini-events (with fewer people, of course),” he says. “The focus was all on creating a wonderful experience and an opportunity for bonding and connecting guests.”
While getting to sample tasty foods is an exciting prospect, Landolt emphasizes that there’s always been an even larger purpose at play. “The [Downtown Roanoke Food and Cultural Tour] is about connecting Roanoke’s history, culture and architecture with our iconic food and restaurants/eateries that help tell our city’s story,” he explains. “I’ve often said the food tastings serviced are just a reason or prop that helps us tell Roanoke’s story.”
The company conducted their inaugural tour a decade ago and they’re still going strong, despite having to put things on pause during the pandemic. During that time, they focused their efforts on walking-only tours and alternative food experiences while Roanoke’s food scene worked to regain its footing, but Landolt is happy to report that tours are now back in action in full.
In fact, Tour Roanoke has expanded their offerings to include more hands-on, “edu-tainment” experiences. They recently added more dates to Shaken or Stirred?, a partnership with Lucky Restaurant where guests try their hand at making four cocktails themselves while learning some of the fundamentals along the way. The company also recently revealed that they’re teaming up with Stock Cafe for a brand new Scandinavian-focused culinary experience as well as developing “a 2.0 beer-pairing interactive event” with Twisted Track Brewpub.
The most rewarding part of the whole experience for Landolt has been getting to meet and interact with those in attendance and seeing the bonds they form with one another. “We’ve had guests who were strangers only a few hours earlier exchange contact information, make dinner reservations and plan other ways of connecting. It’s gratifying.”
Learn more about Tour Roanoke and reserve your spot on one of their food and beverage adventures on their website, roanokefoodtours.com.
The story above is from our November/December 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
