By: Shane Bagot
South Jersey is home to a wide array of cuisines that are just waiting to be discovered. In these little suburban towns, it can be hard for the hole-in-the-wall spots to get some recognition. On the Town Food Tours, started and run by Audrey Wiggins, saw a chance to support and be an additional asset for them.
On the Town Food Tours, which was established in 2014, offers walking food tours across 10 different South Jersey towns on the weekends. They have their tour calendar scheduled every Saturday or Sunday. The company also offers private tours for birthdays, anniversaries, or retirements.
For the tours, attendees will eat at three different restaurants. They always end with something sweet to wrap up the tour. Throughout those three restaurants, there is also shopping included at retail spots. If time allows, there may be a stop at the local farmers market. To further immerse in the town, a history tour is provided, as some of them have extensive history.
Wiggins, on top of seeing all these great unknown spots, had been inspired by the other walking food tours going on in places all over, like New York, California, and Rome. At the time of its startup, there were not many tours happening in the area, according to Wiggins. She recognized that there was a demand in the area for this kind of thing.
“I think that people travel a lot, and they go to various countries, and they really want to experience what they’ve had in their travels, and you know they may try cooking it at home, but I also think that they would love to see restaurants that are diverse in cuisine in their own neighborhoods, or locally, or even regionally,” said Wiggins.
On back-to-back weekends of November 14 and 21 are the Haddonfield and Medford Food Tours. It will cost $85 per person for each tour. Both will go from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., though if the farmers market is open for Haddonfield, it will be 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Haddonfield will be visiting Wanda BYOB, Cross Culture Indian Restaurant, and then Zaffron Mediterranean Cuisine. Attendees will take one of the meals to the Kings Road Brewing Company to eat along with a beer tasting. They finish up with Duffy’s Fine Chocolates. There will be some time for the farmers market and shopping at the Spice and Tea Exchange.
Then, for Medford, attendees will be visiting Braddock’s Tavern, Whole Hog Cafe, and The Feed Mill Eatery. Some shopping can be done at Mill Creek Apiary and the Shops at the Feed Mill. Also included is Aloha Bowls, with the final stop being at Pee Wee’s Ice Cream.
The diversity in the tours is important to the goal of Wiggins. Her goal is to make all 10 tours appealing and accessible to participants. Furthermore, when going to these restaurants, she likes to give guests an opportunity to interact with the people behind the food and learn about their backgrounds and journeys to opening their restaurants.
Wiggins treasures the joy and togetherness that food is able to achieve for her community.
“I think it is the food. It’s the shared experience of eating over delicious food and at a gathering. Literally, you’re at a table gathering with sometimes people you know and sometimes people you don’t know, and it really allows you to get to know the other person, the other people, have conversation. After all, everyone there has a familiar interest in food of some kind, and if it’s not just food, it’s also a little bit about history,” said Wiggins.
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This article was produced as part of Follow South Jersey’s student journalism program, which provides aspiring journalists with practical experience in professional news reporting and writing.
