What Makes a Good Food Tour Partner
We are fortunate to have more than fifty food tour partners who work with us. Having so many choices allows us to keep our tours fresh for both our guides and our guests. We can stay on the cutting edge when new businesses or food trends enter the market, and we don’t have to worry about wearing out our welcome with a handful of partners.
Prime Cincinnati
When dealing with so many restaurants and merchants, it takes time to understand each other’s needs, build relationships, and take advantage of cross marketing opportunities. Thus, we focus on independently owned businesses where we can really get to know the owners and staff. Once you create this connection, the food tour experience blossoms.
When we came on the scene in 2012, food tours were new to Cincinnati. Sure, Cincinnati had an impressive culinary history, but no one was organizing tours on a regular basis using multiple tasting stops as part of a memorable experience. As we began to develop our tours, it became obvious that certain establishments were better than others at grasping the value of an opportunity to host food lovers for representative samples.
Over time, we have zeroed in on best practices for food tour partners:
- A good food tour partner informs the staff that a group will be coming. They greet us at the door.
- A good food tour partner has a table set aside for our group or a space set aside for serving a sample. We feel special.
- A good food tour partner offers background information about the business. We like knowing the story behind the restaurant or shop.
- A good food tour partner explains the sample for tasting. We’re food lovers. We like to know the story behind the sample.
- A good food tour partner tells us what else is available at this location. We like to see menus, find out hours of business, and hear about special events.
- A good food tour partner invites us back. We like to feel like we’ve found a new favorite spot, and we’re eager to return another time.
The success of Cincinnati Food Tours is dependent on the relationships that we build with our partners. We can’t do it without them, and we like to think that we’re all getting better each day.