Why we started this
A food tour I'd actually take my own friends on.
I moved to Nashville in 2011 and fell hard for the food scene, not the famous Broadway version, but the locally-owned places where the owners are still in the kitchen and the recipes have been passed down for generations. Then I watched what happened next: massive growth, celebrity-themed bars taking over Lower Broadway, and a quiet but real fear that the spots that made Nashville Nashville were going to get squeezed out.
So in 2018, I started A Little Local Flavor. Not because I wanted to run a tour company, but because I couldn't find a tour I'd actually take my own friends on. Every other food tour in Nashville was either tourist-trap stops or a budget-driven sampler tray. Nothing felt like the real city.
That's still the question we ask at every stop. We don't pick the cheapest option. We pick the best one. And we only pick it from a locally-owned restaurant, never a chain, never a tourist destination with great marketing.
The other thing I should mention: I have celiac disease. That's not a footnote, it's a foundation. Every restaurant on our route has options for guests with dietary restrictions because I picked each one knowing what it feels like to sit at a table and wonder if you can eat anything. If you have food allergies, celiac, or any restriction, you are not an afterthought here. You are who this tour was designed for.
Eight years later, we have hosted more than 23,000 guests, put over $1.4 million directly into Nashville's locally-owned restaurants, and held a perfect 5.0 rating across 2,700+ five-star reviews. Every other food tour company that launched alongside us has either changed hands, been acquired, or shut down. I am still here, still running every part of this business, and still walking the same streets with our guides.
