Memphis Guided Food Tour with 5 Tastings

Taste your way through three hours of Memphis history, starting on the quiet, historic blocks of South Main and finishing under the neon of Beale Street. Along the way, 5 tastings tell the story of a river town that kept getting knocked down and kept getting back up.You'll meet your local guide outside Memphis Central Station. The first stop sets the tone: a Secret Dish served inside one of the oldest restaurants in the city, a plate that has been its claim to fame for more than a century. We won't say what it is. You'll find out when it reaches the table.From there, the walk takes you past the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 and where the National Civil Rights Museum now stands. Between bites, you'll hear how cotton money built downtown while the city's Black community built its soul, how the yellow fever epidemic nearly wiped Memphis off the map, and how a man born enslaved helped raise Beale Street from the ruins.Then comes the food Memphis is famous for. Two ribs arrive side by side with slaw and smoky beans, one glazed with sauce and one coated in dry rub, both smoked low and slow over hickory and pecan. A few blocks on, you'll bite into fried chicken with a national reputation, dipped in a spicy batter and fried to a deep, crackling brown.Passing the Orpheum Theatre, you'll step onto Beale Street, the Home of the Blues, for a bowl of gumbo rich with chicken, smoky sausage and okra. This Secret Food Tours route saves the sweetest moment for last: a deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a tribute to Elvis on the street where he first heard the sound that made him. The tour ends at Handy Park, beneath the statue of the Father of the Blues,.