Bleu Plate Tours offer a unique perspective on Lexington’s culinary community
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Laura Mize has always been drawn to walking tours while traveling – she considers it one of the best ways to get to know a city. “I don’t care what the subject is, it’s just a good way to get acclimated and be entertained, and learn something at the same time,” she said.
When Mize started noticing an increasing number of walking tours centered on food in recent years, her interest was particularly piqued, having long felt that food is the best way to experience the culture of a community.
“I’m a foodie – I’m not a very cultured foodie, but I like to eat,” she said with a laugh.
After taking a food tour in Pasadena, Calif., a city about half the size of Lexington, the gears started turning in Mize’s head.
“I remember looking around thinking, ‘They should do this in Lexington,’” she said. “Then, I chuckled and I’m like, ‘Who’s they? It’s me, it’s you, it’s whoever.’”
After returning from the Pasadena trip, Mize found that it was more than just a passing thought – the idea of starting her own walking food tour in Lexington continued to mull around in her head. Having lived in Lexington since 2006 (and working here since the early ‘90s), she felt confident with her knowledge about the Lexington culinary scene but had been disappointed by the lack of options to experience the local food culture beyond simply going to a restaurant to eat.
“From my perspective, I thought I knew Lexington really well, but living out near Hamburg, I never came downtown, I never felt connected to downtown,” she said. “I didn’t have a reason to go, except for the food.”
Mize, who has a full-time job working as a marketing associate for a local engineering firm, started spending more and more of her free time downtown walking between her favorite restaurants, sometimes up to six to eight hours a day. She was hoping to get a better sense of how a downtown food tour might feel and how much ground could reasonably be covered in a few hours on foot, and started striking up conversations with local restaurateurs to gauge their interest in participating.
“Initially, the route I put together was way too big, so I started whittling it around,” she said. “I started to see that it really could work.”
In the summer of 2010, Bleu Plate Food Tours – Lexington’s only walking culinary tour – was born. Having started as a once-a-week event featuring scheduled tastings at a curated list of downtown eateries, Mize was overwhelmed by the local interest right out of the gate – the first tour was packed, and she had to turn people away on the second and third tours to keep the number to 16 (the maximum guest number that she had agreed upon with the featured restaurants).
“Within the first six to eight weeks, I went from one tour a week to three,” Mize said.
Two years into her venture, Mize says she has now led more than 130 tours to more than 1,000 patrons, and has had to hire a second tour guide to help keep up with the venture.
“If I didn’t have a full time job, I would not have hired a tour guide,” she said. “I absolutely love doing these tours.”
Each tour features four to six unique stops, from classic Lexington eateries to unexpected holes-in-the-wall; each stop prepares a tasting portion of a signature item, with most items being somehow Kentucky-centered.
While the tours are a great way for newcomers and visitors to become acquainted with the history and culinary culture of Lexington, longtime residents will be surprised at how much is in it for them as well. Mize sprinkles fun historical facts about Lexington in with the tours, as well as information about local restaurants that are along the route but not featured on the tour.
“If there’s a restaurant that we pass that isn’t on any of my tours, I feel like it’s my job (to tell people about it),” she said.
The success of the Bleu Plate Tours spawned another unique venture for Mize: Bleu Plate Confidential Dinners. Highlighting a different local chef at each event, the dinners take place in an unconventional location that is revealed to ticket-holders the day before the event. Mize aims to do a couple Confidential dinners each year, only marketing them through her website and the e-mail list available on that site. Past locations have included Gallery B, Alltech Brewing Company, Housewarmings and Lexus of Lexington.
“The chefs love doing it because it gets them out of their box, it allows them to be creative,” she said.
Robin Ramsay, a Richmond resident who works in Lexington, first stumbled across the tours when she was looking for some activities to book for her son and daughter-in-law, who were planning a trip to Lexington a couple of summers ago. They enjoyed the tour so much that Ramsay has subsequently tried every tour Mize has to offer, as well as attended every Bleu Plate Confidential dinner so far. She says she appreciates the opportunities the tours provide to meet new people, try new things and learn more about the local culinary community.
“I just think it’s a really fun concept – something different to do than dinner and movie,” she said.
Ramsay particularly enjoys the unique experience of the Bleu Plate Confidential Dinners.
“Sitting and chatting with people. That’s a skill that Americans need to learn – how to linger over their meals,” she added. “The point wasn’t to get in and get our meals as quick as we could, but to enjoy the evening and savor it.