ABOUT SIDEWALK FOOD TOURS OF LAS VEGAS

OUR STORY

EXPERIENCE LAS VEGAS THROUGH ITS FOOD

Sidewalk Food Tours was founded in New York City in 2011 by Joshua Hirsch with a simple idea: one of the best ways to understand a city is through its food.

After years of leading food tours in cities across the U.S. and abroad, we brought Sidewalk Food Tours to Las Vegas in 2022. Since then, we’ve spent a lot of time exploring the city, eating at local restaurants, working with local guides, and finding the food and stories we think are worth sharing.

Las Vegas is famous for the Strip, but there’s a lot more to the city than casinos, celebrity chefs, and big-name restaurants. That’s one of the things we enjoy showing our guests. Downtown Las Vegas has its own history, personality, local restaurants, and stories—and it’s a great neighborhood to explore on foot.

We want a Sidewalk Food Tour to feel a little like exploring Las Vegas with a local friend who knows where to eat and has some good stories to tell along the way. Our guides don’t simply take you from one restaurant to the next. They share the history, culture, people, and stories behind the places you’re visiting.

We also put a lot of thought into where we eat. Not every restaurant we try makes the cut. The food has to be delicious, but we also consider the people behind the restaurant, its connection to Downtown Las Vegas, the experience our guests have there, and how each tasting fits with the rest of the tour.

Our private Downtown Las Vegas food tours are popular with families, friends, celebrations, and other groups who want to experience Vegas together. Having your own guide makes it easy to eat, explore, and spend time together without having to figure out all the restaurant stops yourself.

We also specialize in corporate team-building food tours in Las Vegas. Instead of spending another few hours in a meeting room, coworkers get out into Downtown Las Vegas, eat together, explore the neighborhood, and have plenty of time to talk and enjoy each other’s company. For larger corporate groups, we can divide guests into smaller groups with multiple guides and coordinate the experience so everyone can participate.

Whether you’re joining our public Downtown Las Vegas Food Tour, booking a private tour with family and friends, or planning a corporate team-building event, our goal is pretty simple: great food, interesting stories, and a fun way to experience a different side of Las Vegas.

We’re always discovering new restaurants, meeting new people, and finding new places worth sharing.

Come hungry. We’d love to show you around.

Sidewalk Food Tours Las Vegas

OUR TOURS

EXPLORE DOWNTOWN LAS VEGAS ONE BITE AT A TIME

There’s a lot more to Las Vegas than the Strip. Our Downtown Las Vegas Food Tour gets you out on foot to experience the food, history, architecture, and colorful characters that helped shape the city.

Come hungry. Along the way, you’ll stop at local restaurants and food spots we’ve chosen to give you a taste of Downtown Las Vegas. We look for delicious food, but we also look for places that have an interesting story, a connection to the neighborhood, or something you might not discover on your own.

Between tastings, our local guides bring Downtown Las Vegas to life with stories about early pioneers, cowboys, gangsters, the rivalry between Downtown and the Strip, and the transformation of the neighborhood over the years. You’ll also see some of the landmarks and architecture that tell the story of old and new Las Vegas.

A Sidewalk Food Tour isn’t just about moving from one restaurant to the next. The food gets you into the neighborhood, but the stories help you understand it.

Join our public Downtown Las Vegas Food Tour, book a private food tour for family and friends, or bring your coworkers together for a corporate team-building food tour. It’s an easy way to eat well, spend time together, and experience a side of Las Vegas that’s very different from what you’ll find inside the resorts on the Strip.

Whether it’s your first time in Las Vegas or you’ve visited a dozen times, we hope you leave with a full belly, a few good stories, and a completely different impression of Downtown.

See Las Vegas beyond the Strip—one bite at a time.

FIND THE TOUR THAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU!

MEET THE TEAM

a man standing in a room

JOSHUA HIRSCH

OWNER

On a six-hour historical tour of Lower Manhattan, Joshua’s stomach began to grumble as the guide pointed out some delicious food spots. It was then that he had an “aha moment.” He decided to include his favorite food places on a history and culture walking tour, so folks wouldn’t be hungry while discovering the city!

He wanted his tours to tell the story of the neighborhood through its food and the people who prepare it. The rest, as they say, is history. Sidewalk Food Tours, a culinary experience company, was born. He has since expanded into ten delectable cities. His goal is to expand to every major U.S. city you travel to, so you can experience its food and culture on a Sidewalk Food Tour.

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CHIEU HIRSCH

PARTNER

We are honored to have Chieu Hirsch on our team. She plays an integral part in the company’s overall success. Her family bravely refuged to the U.S. from Vietnam in the 1980s. She brings years of business experience, previously working for Sprint, Principal Financial, Morgan Stanley, and Hartford. In addition to her business acumen, she is extremely passionate about feng shui, astrology, food, and culture. She loves meditation, traveling, and hiking to beautiful mountaintops. Spending quality time with her eight nieces and nephews is what brings her the most joy.

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ROBBIE BRUENS

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Robbie Bruens designs, develops and manages food experiences for Sidewalk. In addition to food (the highest art form, as we can all agree) he is also passionate about movies, books, paintings, and architecture. With that in mind, he recommends you watch Big Night (1996) directed by and starring Stanley Tucci and read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, as these combine the culinary arts with cinema and literature.

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AMBER MCCALLISTER

GUIDE

Amber is originally an East Coast girl who grew up living in Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island. A bartending job brought her to Las Vegas in 2007, and she loved it so much she’s stuck around all these years! She’s a professional on-camera host, a definite foodie, and a Mom to a baby girl who she absolutely adores. Her favorite foods are sushi and anything chocolate!

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LAURINDA JANLEWICZ

GUIDE

Laurinda’s passion and purpose is helping to facilitate curiosity and connection in the world. She has a background in outdoor education, guiding, group facilitation and event organising. Laurinda is obsessed with the history of Las Vegas. She loves sharing a side of Vegas that highlights stories many people never heard before. Not to mention finding the secret food spots to ignite your taste buds.

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ANDREW HRUBY

GUIDE

Andrew is a Northern Nevadan who fell in love with Vegas. A fan of travel and culture, he lived abroad in South Korea for 10 years prior to returning to the states and making Vegas his home. Andrew enjoys reading and hiking (Vegas is close to many beautiful National Parks). When he isn’t leading tours, Andrew can be found with a glass of wine to his nose as he tastes his way towards becoming a sommelier.

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JULIANA THOMSEN

GUIDE

Jules is a world traveler who loves good music, good food, and fun facts. In her spare time she enjoys teaching yoga. playing the ukulele, and exploring new food spots.

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ERIC COLEMAN

GUIDE

On the run from creditors and the mob, Eric Coleman moved to Chicago in 2008. Soon after the gadfly got his feet wet in the Chicago Theater scene by playing Ron Paul in Ron Paul the Musical. While holed up in The City of Broad Shoulders, Mr. Coleman went on to launch the plays Shift-Faced at the Gorilla Tango Theater and Bloody Haymarket at the Irish American Heritage Center, in what some have called a brilliant diversion. Awaiting arrest, Mr. Coleman has taught English as a Second Language, run holding patterns around downtown as a Tour Guide, and has brazenly returned to Los Angeles in order to run for office in his hometown of Redondo Beach and finally moved to the Vegas area in April of 2020. Do me a favor, if the police ask, you have not seen the guide for this tour!