Audrey Giannattasio likes to explore her hometown through the eyes of an inquisitive visitor. She leads public and private groups on food-focused walking tours of Boston neighborhoods like the North End, Back Bay, and Beacon Hill, through her company, Boston Foodie Tours. “I always tell our guests we promise you the best eats, but we can’t promise you our ‘r’,” says the Boston native. Tourists and locals alike take her tours. “Wherever you live, we always say there are places you just never stop to explore. We help build a tour so that you make a discovery.”
This is a second career for Giannattasio, who spent 20 years as a recruiter in Boston before earning a professional certificate from The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts. “I never meant to work in a kitchen; it was for personal development at the time. But in the back of my mind I was always hopeful that I would be able to work in the business.”
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The entrepreneur always incorporated food-related tours into her own travels, which is how she got the idea for the business. “What I wanted for myself was to show primarily award-winning best eats. Not what one person thought was a good eat, but what has been recognized.” That means offerings from top-notch chefs and shops, she says. “We have over 60 partners throughout Boston.” Tours might include indulging in cider doughnuts at a farmers’ market, tasting sandwiches from a Flour Bakery, eating a slice at Regina Pizzeria, or nibbling on chocolate mice from L.A. Burdick Handmade Chocolates.
Small tours run up to 4½ hours (cost starts at $75 per person). “The quantity of food is a full meal,” says the leader. She takes up to a dozen for some tours to keep it intimate, and can accommodate larger groups too. “We try to stay in our lane; we’ve learned not to try to be everything to everyone. We just try to do what we’ve set out to do especially well.” Boston Foodie Tours, 617-461-5772, www.bostonfoodie
tours.com
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CATHERINE SMART