Off The Beaten Path Food Tours Diving to the Heart of Boston Through Food Written by Mia Overbo | Designed by Madeline Michalowski | Photographed by Miranda Ceron
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ne of the best ways to get to know a city is through its food—and not just any food, but meals prepared by localfavorite restaurants. Local businesses and the people who run them are what weave a community together. Last fall, I moved from California to Boston. Since arriving, I’ve loved getting to know my new home. I wanted a way to explore new places, so I applied to be a food tour guide for Off the Beaten Path Food Tours. I knew by their name that this experience would offer me a more authentic glimpse of what it means to be a Boston local. I was surprised to get the job; I had never been to the places I would be touring, let alone even point them out on a map. Yet, I was so eager to learn. That was last October. Now, I have been on a handful of tours for training and have just recently co-led my first one: The Food and Mural Arts Tour in Cambridge. When I first spoke with Lizzie Bell, the co-founder of Off the Beaten Path Food Tours, she radiated a love for the local neighborhoods in the Boston Area: Cambridge, Harvard Square, Union
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Square, Somerville, and Davis Square being her favorites. These “off the beaten path” neighborhoods are where she runs her tours. Bell and her partner, Sam, founded the company wanting to offer visitors a way to discover the local staples, ensuring visitors discover the best hidden gems in just one afternoon, rather than sifting through countless restaurant reviews and dodging tourist traps. After asking all of her friends about their favorite spots and interviewing over 30 local restaurants to find the best fits, she began creating her first tour routes. Now, the company offers five different tours, running on both weekends and weeknights year-round. Our most popular is the Harvard Square Chocolate Tour. We visit four different stops trying different chocolate desserts: hazelnut chocolate-filled greek donuts, cacao shots, and chocolatedrizzled waffles topped with ice cream, among others. At each stop, we talk about the history of the area and meet the owners of the restaurants to learn about their stories. On the Food and Mural Arts tour, we visit over four different murals, each with a backstory about the artists and their creative vision. At graffiti alley (the first place in the U.S. to legalize graffiti), we even supply our
tour groups with spray paint so they can leave their mark. However, the company does more than just run tours. Bell is always bubbling with new ideas and finding ways to support the local community. She creates blog posts which list local recommendations. I help her create TikToks that promote the tours and restaurants we visit. These destinations help us give back to the community. One of our stops on the Cambridge tours is Daily Table, a nonprofit grocery store offering discounted food prices for everyone in the community. The restaurants, too, radiate generosity. Although us food tour guides do not expect to be served food with the guests, the restaurants often provide us with their creations. I’ve watched the other longterm tour guides befriend the owners of the restaurants and catch up on their lives. This closeness goes to show that Off the Beaten Path is inextricable from the local community. The menu items of these local restaurants are now my new comfort foods. I am so grateful for what Off the Beaten Path Food Tours has given me: a taste of Boston and an understanding of what feels to be part of it.