OUR STORY
FOOD TOURS IN SAN FRANCISCO SINCE 2013
We brought Sidewalk Food Tours to San Francisco since 2013, making it one of our longest-running food tour cities. Today, our local guides introduce guests to the food, history and culture of Chinatown, North Beach and the Mission District. Two friends with a deep love of food, history, and the city of San Francisco found themselves constantly taking friends and family on private walking tours. One day a friend of theirs said, “You guys always give us such informative and delicious food tours. You should start a food tour company, so other people will be able to enjoy your tours as much as we do.” And the rest, as they say, is history.
Our goal is to provide exceptional walking food tours of San Francisco, so people can revisit these neighborhoods with confidence and enjoy the array of cultural options they have to offer. We’re self-proclaimed foodies. We’ve made it our mission to eat our way through San Francisco, doing a lot of delicious research (and some not so appetizing) to bring you the best food options San Francisco has to offer.
There is no better way to learn about the history and culture of a neighborhood than to eat its food. The food, and the people who prepare it, tells a story about the neighborhood. Tease your taste buds and join us in either the old Italian enclave of North Beach or the oldest neighborhood in San Francisco, The Mission District; or the oldest Chinatown in North America.
We eat foods from decades-old establishments, which have stood the test of time, as well as newer places with award-winning chefs. Join us on a real foodie adventure as we eat our way through these delicious neighborhoods and uncover the off-the-beaten-path food spots of San Francisco.
San Francisco is one chapter of a bigger story. Sidewalk Food Tours was founded in New York City in 2011 by Joshua Hirsch, who had been leading walking tours there since 2008, and it has grown one neighborhood at a time ever since. Read the full Sidewalk Food Tours story.
Bon voyage,
SIDEWALK FOOD TOURS OF SAN FRANCISCO
OUR TOURS
EXPLORE SAN FRANCISCO ONE BITE AT A TIME
MEET THE TEAM
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.
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.
ROBBIE BRUENS
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
Robbie Bruens designs, develops and manages food experiences for Sidewalk Food Tours. 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.
JINNY PEARCE
GUIDE
Jinny is a life long flâneuse and loves to hit the pavement and see what’s over the next hit, the next light in foggy distance. She came out to San Francisco as a performer and visual artist and runs a private letterpress specializing in Bay Area poets and making prints about the landscape that called and still calls them as it does her.
MICHAEL MEADOWS
GUIDE
Excelsior district since 1994. Part food explorer and part historian, he finds the evolution of the San Francisco’s ever changing food scene not for the weak of heart (or stomach). He completed local magazine 7×7’s 100 things to eat in SF before you die in 30 days. You can normally find him eating at the bar.
Favorite SF Food: Good Luck Dim Sum’s shrimp and chive dumplings
Favorite SF Guilty Pleasure: Going to the In-N-Out in Fisherman’s Wharf
Favorite SF Restaurant: Original Joe’s
Favorite Drink: Rye on the Rocks at the 500 Club
CATHERINE FALLIS
GUIDE
Catherine is the founder of Planet Grape® LLC, a wine consulting firm providing content, reviews, corporate & private tastings, restaurant wine program development, and speaking services. She created her alter-ego, grape goddess®, to help bring wine down to earth for consumers as well as those entering the wine industry. Catherine is a frequent speaker, event host, educator, and consultant for corporations, consumers and the wine trade. She has recently launched Planet Grape Wine Review, America’s first female-led wine review platform, and has authored Ten Grapes to Know, the Ten and Done Wine Guide.
SPUD HILTON
GUIDE
Spud is a travel writer who spent nearly 20 years in the Travel Section of the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s passionate that food is the most accessible way to discover the personality of a place and that San Francisco is a perfect place to test that theory. He’s lived in the heart of the Mission District for almost 30 years and, when he isn’t leading tours, he’s a freelance writer, a podcaster and a cornet player for early New Orleans-style jazz bands. Favorite cocktail: Vodka martini from Tadich Grill in the Financial District.
Favorite local food: Mission-style burrito.
Favorite local restaurant: The Sausage Factory in the Castro.
TED BAGAMAN
GUIDE
Ted has been a resident of the Bay Area for almost 40 years. After a career in retail, Ted shifted to leading tours: walking tours, food tours, coach tours for cruise passengers and students. He’s thrilled to be able to meet people, informing and entertaining them.
KENRIC WONG
GUIDE
Born and raised in New York City. Has lived in the Bay Area for over 30 years. Worn many hats over the years. Spent 8 years in the hospitality industry. Passionate about food, travel and sharing knowledge about many subjects. Willing to travel to different parts of the Bay Area for the best barbeque joint.
Looking for a different neighborhood? Explore our other San Francisco food tours or check out our private group events.