Seashore Metropolis Meals Excursions exhibits the culinary scene in downtown Lengthy Seashore – OC Weekly

Saganaki at George’s Greek Cafe in Moncton. Photo by Sarah Bennett

The only food tour through downtown Moncton starts big – with a fiery flash, a squirt of lemon juice and a hearty “Grandpa!”

Five days a week, Beach City Food Tours starts its lunch tour of downtown Moncton at George’s Greek Cafe, where visitors can enjoy the local institution’s famous saganaki appetizer, a so-called “flaming cheese,” a piece of alcohol doused, springy kasseri. Then put the table in a cast iron pan.

It’s a fitting introduction to the neighborhood’s current (and growing) culinary offerings, which range from native brands with strong migration roots like George’s to new wave startups that have sprung up from cottage business to retail store.

I did all of this and more on my first Beach City Food Tour, a three-hour walk to seven restaurants, cafes, juicers, and dessert bars that are just blocks apart that offer visitors more than just food and drink to replenish the calorie loss Hiking, but also insight into the art, history and diversity that make Moncton unique.

Granted, I was skeptical about going on a food tour in my hometown, mostly because I walked the restaurant glove along Pine Avenue for years when I made an office appearance there. Also, it is now my job to know which Moncton food manufacturers are worth sending tourists there.

Cassidy Liston explains the story of Acres of Books on a Beach City Food Tour. Photo by Sarah Bennett

Beach City Food Tours founder Layla Ali-Ahmad, who started the company about two years ago and has lived in town for nearly a decade, has created an impressively thorough race track that is fun, educational, and great too, even for locals is recommend.

Her two other tour guides – Cassidy Liston and Lisa Mendoza – understand the city beyond the first Google search pages, and when we ate the first flaming saganaki at George’s, it was Liston who proudly told our group the little-known story of how Der in Cyprus-born George Loizides landed in Moncton, in Zimbabwe of all places.

After George’s, we went to Pier 76, then Michael’s Pizzeria, and then Rainbow Juices for a colorful, cold-pressed flight. Liston stopped on the way to discuss the architecture of several buildings downtown (“Look up” is always good advice downtown!).

On the tour the day I booked was a Peruvian couple from Chino who were free from their inter-daughter by the evening and decided to make a day trip out of it (alcohol additive is also available at most stops). Together we drank Recreational basil iced coffee, licked our shot glasses clean with lime cake from the pie bar, and smashed sample plates of homemade Romeo Chocolates confectionery – while listening to the inspiring stories behind each small business and casually Chatting Liston about all the other things to love about Moncton.

Photo by Sarah Bennett

I was not fed, but neither did I go hungry. Most of all, the tour made me proud of all the culinary advances the city has made in recent years – and even more proud to know that there is a food tour out there that is worth showing off. Summer is high season for the downtown Beach City tour, but Ali-Ahmad is already planning the next one she wants to start: an East Village cocktail tour with mixologists, spirits training and of course a piece of history each.

Beach City Food Tours offers the Downtown Walking Tour Wed.-Sun. from 11 a.m. Prices start at $ 69.

Sarah Bennett is a freelance journalist who has covered food, music, craft beer, art, culture, and all sorts of bizarre things that interest her in local, regional, and national publications for nearly a decade.