Taste Seattle, a unique lesbian-owned business

Taste SeattleBY LESBIAN.COM

Alki Beach is where sun-seekers flock to enjoy a summer day at the beach and take advantage of breath taking panoramic views of the Seattle city scape and the Olympic Mountains. It’s also a vibrant neighborhood with some foodie gems and rich with history and a beach culture all its own.
Food tasting tours are a great way to get to know a neighborhood as they are a true sensory and culinary experience.

Sampling great cuisine is a given, but you also see amazing sights, hear about interesting historical facts & learn the “back-story” of how local businesses came to be.

Taste Seattle Food Tours is pleased to be launching a unique biking foodie tour along Alki Beach beginning on July 18. The tour is a really fun activity for both visitors and locals alike and provides that ocean salt-water smell that leaves no doubt you are beachside. Cruising along the Alki bike trail affords amazing views of Puget Sound, Elliot Bay, the Olympic Mountains, Bainbridge Island and the city of Seattle.

One of the bonuses of this food and biking tour is eating all those delicious bites is guilt-free because you are riding approximately 3 miles each way, working off the calories as you go.

One of the best ways to experience the highlights of the Alki Beach neighborhood is to spend an afternoon with Taste Seattle Food Tours.

Taste Seattle Food Tours is owned by two lesbian women, Felicia Watson and Roen Ako, both of whom are West Seattle residents and are excited to share the unique culture of Seattle’s largest neighborhood.

Roen serves on the board of the Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA), a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Allied business and professional chamber of commerce. They were recently married this past January and were one of the first couples married in Hawaii after the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act made same sex marriage legal in Roen’s home state. Together, they share a passion for great food and guiding both locals and visitors off the “eaten path.”

Seattle has a wealth of amazing food, and Taste Seattle aims to allow their guests to sample tasting portions, which allows eating at multiple locations to give a broad sampling of the best the neighborhood has to offer. They partner with local, artisanal businesses that offer superior and unique products that showcase Seattle’s rich food scene. Eating and biking your way through a neighborhood is a fun and flavorful interactive activity.

The afternoon is spent sampling your way along the beach on a beach cruiser bicycle (provided as part of the tour in partnership with Alki Kayak Tours) with stops at five eateries. The eating is kicked off at Marination voted by ABC’s Good Morning America as the best food truck in America. Guests will sample a few examples of this Hawaiian-Korean fusion-style street food.

Next, it is on to a relative newcomer on the beach, Slices on Alki, a pizzeria owned by a husband and wife team. Slices focuses on carefully selected ingredients (organic whenever possible) and fresh daily house-made sauce and dough that is then hand-tossed in a thin-crust style and paired with a craft micro-brew from neighboring Ampersand Cafe. Next it’s onto Seattle’s oldest fast-food restaurant, Alki Spud Fish and Chips, which has been on Alki Avenue since 1935 (celebrating 80 years next year). They use the original recipes for their fish and chips, which are still hand-cut and prepared. The tour is capped off with a sweet ending at Salty’s on Alki Beach. Salty’s is a local favorite for special occasions with one of the most impressive views of any restaurant in the area and award-winning cuisine.

“It’s been a privilege and a joy to offer Seattle’s gorgeous skyline view to our dining guests at Salty’s on Alki Beach, so we were especially eager to partner with Felicia and Roen on their new Alki Beach, Bikes and Bites Food Tour. The history of West Seattle is rich with stories and we are honored to be included,” says Kathy Kingen, Salty’s co-owner along with husband and founder Gerry Kingen.

Taking the Alki Beach, Bikes and Bites tour provides a taste for Seattle’s beach neighborhood while revealing stories of its origins like answering why there is a replica Statue of Liberty on Alki Beach. The tour visits several points of cultural interest like the former site of the Luna Park amusement park, a few of Seattle’s oldest residences still standing today and a working lighthouse on Alki Point.

Stories of the neighborhood come to life in between bites, as guests are guided alongside a knowledgeable tour lead who offers insight into Alki’s colorful past and present incarnations, pointing out hidden gems from quirky public art to a working lighthouse.

Skip all the long summer lines, planning and fuss and let Taste Seattle Food Tours entertain you for a few hours replete with tasty riches. The new tour begins July 18th and will run on Friday and Saturdays at 11 a.m. through the rest of the summer. Alki Beach is easily accessible from Seattle’s waterfront by taking the King County Water Taxi from Pier 50 to Seacrest Park where the tour begins and ends.

To buy tickets or for more information on taking Taste Seattle Food Tour’s newest Beach, Bikes and Bites tour, please visit their website.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

*