NEW TOUR DATES FOR SPRING 2023 WILL BE REALEASED IN MID FEBUARY, SHOWCASING NEW RESTURANTS AND CELEBRATE ALL THINGS GREAT ABOUT DETROIT FOOD!

This tour takes place from 6:30 pm to 9:30ish pm (based on the pace of the group, traffic, and restaurants we arrive back between 9:30 pm and 10:00 pm) on Thursday evenings—bus loads 5 minutes prior to departure time. Late arrivals can not be accommodated.

The culture of Detroit rotates on many axes but none more visceral, more exciting, and more enduring than our beloved city’s food culture. Join Detroit History Tours as we explore the history of eating, drinking, cooking, and carousing in the Motor City. This four hour tour is a progressive style dinner, with plenty of food to fill even the hungriest bellies. Together with your guides you’ll explore four restaurants with rich histories, homemade delights and even a few surprises. From the great brands of Detroit’s past (and future), the joys of a perfect coney island chili, Detroit-made curry to fish and chips with a 70 year legacy you’ll get it all, even before we get to dessert.

You’ll learn the secrets of the Hudson department store’s cafeterias and restaurants making 10,000 meals a day and why oysters were once considered a Detroit staple. In addition to the dining-part of the tour we’ll spare a moment to learn about local delicacies that have thankfully fallen out of fashion–including pigeon pie, river rat stew, Muskrat during Lenten Fridays and haggis-stuffed brown buns.

You’ll learn about our delectable past as you travel via luxury motor coach from location to location. We look forward to welcoming you, Bon Appetit!

To best enjoy this tour you’ll have not one, but two guides, joined throughout the tour by the owners, brewers, and chefs that have made a lasting mark on Detroit’s culinary scene. Your guides for this tasty tour are two of Detroit’s hungriest gals, Christina and Bailey.

Your ticket price includes all food (plus a 20% tip at each resturant), samples, and non alcoholic drinks. Additional alcoholic drinks may be purchased at designated stops at the guest’s own expense. Our ticket prices never contain hidden service charges that surprise you upon checkout; the advertised price is the price.

Because drinking and swearing come with the history, all public bus tours are strictly 21 years old and older.

The tour leaves promptly at 6:30 pm. Doors to the Detroit History Club open at 6:00 pm.

This tour departs from The Detroit History Club, (3103 Commor St., Hamtramck, MI 48212.) Parking is on street. Doors to the club open 30 minutes before ticketed times (6:00 pm) guests are invited to come inside, check into the tour, and relax until the departure time. Nothing will happen beyond check-in between 6-6:30 pm.

Your order confirmation email will serve as your only ticket. Please save your email and be prepared to show it on your phone or printed to board the bus. (We do this to avoid the ticketing fees that come along with ticketing systems. The price of your ticket will remain the same throughout checkout with no added fees for tax.)

If you have a large group consider booking any of our fabulous tours as a private charter. We can arrange to pick your group up from any location, on any day and any time. Check out our Private Tours link for more information.

Meet Your Guides:

Christina Coden

Christina is a 4th generation chili connoisseur, wife, and mother of 2 beautiful boys. She grew her love of all things Detroit from a very early age, working at her family coney island, Red Hots, which was located in Highland Park. Her passion for chili did not stop, when Red Hots closed shortly after their 100th year anniversary, in 2021. Christina carries on the prized secret recipe today; She began her own company, Red Hots Chili Sauce, which is available now at retail stores, bars and restaurants throughout South East Michigan.

Outside of the chili biz Christina was a special education teacher for 12 years, staying late after class to coach volleyball, softball, and unified basketball. Her enthusiasm is contagious, her knowledge enormous, and her love of great, family owned food producers is unmatched.

Make sure to look for Red Hot’s Chilli Sauce in a grocery store near you!

www.redhotsconeyisland.com

Bailey Sisoy Moore

Bailey Sisoy Isgro is the owner of Detroit History Tours and the proprietress of the Detroit History Club. She is an author, humorist, workaholic, Faygo-loving tour guide from the great City of Detroit. A lover of city ephemera, her most prized possessions include her antique books about Detroit penned by Clarence M. Burton himself, her Library of Congress readers card, her collection of vintage jewelry, and signed pay stubs of Edsel Ford. A frequent essay contributor, her most recent work can be seen in The Detroit Neighborhood Guide Book. Her first children’s book, Rosie A Detroit Herstory, hit shelves in the fall of 2018 from Wayne State Press and is receiving rave reviews. She has appeared on television as a contributor on the Travel Channel’s Tough Boats and Globe Trekker series, is a common guest on history-themed podcasts, and has written op-eds for local papers. She also likes to think her mother is proud. When she isn’t tramping around Detroit giving tours, drinking at century-old bars, and talking history with anyone who’ll join her, she can be found at her home in Highland Park, “a little slice of heaven inside Detroit”. She is meticulous in her research and passionate about historical accuracy, yet she takes great joy in presenting history in the most exciting, playful, and accessible way possible. A passionate connoisseur of all things delicious, she adamantly argues the health benefits of coney dogs and Vernors floats.