Savor Gettysburg Food Tour: A Tasty Trip Through History

Photo Source: Savor Gettysburg

I love chicken pot pie. Turns out, so did President Abraham Lincoln, which puts me in a pretty select group of diners who appreciate this comfort food classic. He also loved chicken fricassee, which is just one of the little known facts that I learned while participating in a Savor Gettysburg food tour.

This three-hour walking tour, now in its third year, is a great way for people new to Gettysburg, PA, to learn the layout of the city and see where everything is. Having never visited before, it gave me the chance to get my bearings while learning all sorts of amazing history, and it also gave me the opportunity to find places that I might not have known about had I just followed a tourist map.

The route is easy for those worried about too much walking; in three hours, you travel less than a mile through Gettysburg’s charming historic streets. And oh, the food—during my tour I got to sample a wealth of delicacies, ranging from shepherd’s pie at Garryowen Irish Pub to Maryland blue crab mac and cheese at One Lincoln. This year’s tour includes those restaurants, as well as handmade artisan pizza from Food 101, homemade soups and crostini from Gettysburg Baking Company, strawberry cheesecake crepes from Kaitlyn’s Café on the Square and a delicious dessert from Mr. G’s Ice Cream. And you get to wash it all down with Pennsylvania wines and ciders from Hauser Estate Winery.

The tour is tweaked slightly every year in order to keep attracting those folks who take the tour whenever they visit. Even seasoned Gettysburg travelers enjoy the tours, since they learn about new places to eat instead of relying on old favorites. The tour is offered on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The wine and cider portion of the tour has proven to be so popular that the company has spun it off into its own experience. The Wine, Cider and Dine Tour, offered on Thursdays and Fridays, includes visits to five different tasting rooms in downtown Gettysburg as well as a stop at Food 101—rated #1 on TripAdvisor—for a three-course tapas tasting paired with Hauser’s wine. Beginning this July, Savor Gettysburg will be also start offering a Gettysburg farmer’s market tour and cooking class one Saturday a month where you get to shop with a local or regional chef, select your own produce and meat, and learn to create a unique meal.

If you’re in Gettysburg on the second Sunday of the month, you can also participate in farm-to-table dinners at Beech Springs Farms, where chefs from across the country come to use local foods to put together a five-course meal for about 40 guests in a barn built in 1867. Called Second Sunday Suppers, each meal follows a theme, such as ‘spring’ or ‘barbecue,’ and the meals will continue through October.

There are a lot of ways to enjoy the agricultural riches that the area has to offer, and I’m a big fan of combining history, a little exercise and great eats. If you’ve never done a food tour before, I highly recommend it as a way to discover a town in a new and delicious way.

Want more info? Visit SavorGettysburgFoodTours.com.

Have you ever taken a food tour? Where did you go? Leave a comment below or share with us on Facebook!

Note: Available plans and coverages may have changed since this blog was published.