Two Gals and a Fork, started by Janet Jordan and Gloria Freeman, offers a one-of-a-kind sightseeing and culinary experience on their tour. Participants visit local restaurants, sampling a special dish at each one and learning the history of the town along the way.
“This is what it’s all about,” Freeman said at O’Hara’s Public House, the last stop of a recent food tour in Lexington. “People start on the tour as strangers and by the end – after they have eaten and broken bread together – they are talking with one another as friends.” Two Gals and a Fork began in 2014 after Jordan and Freeman went on a food tour at Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington during a work trip.
“There were about six of us on that tour. It was a small group, and our tour guide was a very animated theater major. When we finished the tour he came back, and we had Bloody Mary’s. We talked and he said ‘You two have great personalities. You could do this,’” Jordan recalled. On the plane ride back to Columbia from Seattle, Freeman and Jordan decided they would start their own food tour company.
“We wanted to start at Blue Marlin first because we thought Columbia was ready for this type of opportunity. We met with Blue Marlin to see what they thought about the idea, and they loved it,” Jordan said. Jordan and Freeman met with more restaurant managers in downtown Columbia to ask if they wanted to participate as a stop on the Two Gals and a Fork food tour.
“We thought Two Gals and a Fork would be a great way to bring people into the city and have them experience local restaurants. We started in the Vista in Columbia and would do two tours each day. We had a brunch tour from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and then a Sights and Bites tour from 4 to 6:30 p.m.,” said Freeman. Next, Jordan and Freeman set up a tour in Newberry. “Our Newberry tour is very popular – it’s such a quaint little town and they have great restaurants,” Jordan said.
After partnering with Capital City/Lake Murray Country for a special tourism project, Two Gals and a Fork began offering food tours in Lexington in 2018. “Capital City/Lake Murray Country arranged for a television show called Anglers & Appetites to come to Lexington. We were asked to help set up restaurants for the show’s host to visit. That is how we got started in Lexington,” Freeman said.
During a recent food tour of Main Street in Lexington, Two Gals and a Fork took a group to enjoy tastings at Private Property, Alodia’s, Nicky’s Pizza, Bodhi, and O’Hara’s. “We never know exactly what they’re going to serve on the tour, but they always serve something good,” said Freeman.
On the menu for a recent Two Gals and a Fork Lexington food tour were the following dishes: seared scallops and fried corn from Private Property, pasta topped with steak in a Gorgonzola cheese sauce from Alodia’s, a pickle pizza and margarita pizza from Nicky’s Pizza, Chicken Ballotine with Massaman curry sauce from Bodhi, and beef stew with freshly baked bread and a cannoli from O’Hara’s Public House and Bakery.
Two Gals and a Fork tour participants walk to each location where they get to enjoy a dish and speak with the restaurant’s chef and/or manager. “During our food tour, we go to five restaurants with tastings at each. It allows the restaurants to showcase what they do and get people in the door to talk about the food. In between each of the five stops we talk about the history of the area.”
Tourgoers will hear amusing and interesting historical anecdotes about days gone by from the Lexington County Historical Museum representative, Patricia Shandor. “We take gratuities at the end of the tour and all of them are donated back to the museum. We don’t make much money. We don’t pay ourselves; we consider ourselves ambassadors. People learn about the restaurants, and they’ll come back. That is what we want,” said Jordan. “We always tell people when you come back, tell them that you came with Two Gals and a Fork, and they will take good care of you.”
To find out about upcoming food tour dates and locations, and to purchase tour tickets, visit Two Gals and A Fork.