A food adventure in your backyard

Saturday afternoon can come with a bite, or more, thanks to the Dublin Food Tour. Celebrating five years this summer, the tour highlights local eats in Dublin, featuring everything from mini cupcakes to spring rolls, and showcasing Dublin’s diverse cuisine scene March through November.

Establishing the tour

Bethia Woolf

One of Columbus Food Adventures’ 11 tours, the Dublin Food Tour was an idea in the minds of co-founders and couple Bethia Woolf and Andy Dehus for many years. According to Woolf, they wanted to highlight Dublin’s unique tastes and bring forward the small businesses, independent restaurants and food producers they’d experienced.

The only thing they were waiting on was the development of the area – the Dublin Link Pedestrian Bridge and North Market Bridge Park – connecting Dublin and its food experiences across the riverfront. Though stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the duo kicked off the Dublin Food Tour in 2021 and saw a positive response from residents and newcomers alike.

Now, the tour is established with six stops and seven spotlighted restaurants – two of which are in the North Market Bridge Park – with more than 15 items to try between Historic Dublin and Bridge Park.

Guided by residents and workers of Dublin who are passionate about the community and sharing its history while walking between stops, Woolf says it’s an opportunity to learn more about Dublin and see and experience what these local restaurants do best – whether that’s sweet bites, savory plates or international cuisine. Some even offer a glimpse of what’s coming next on the menu.

With some occasional swaps, the tour traditionally follows a path from:

Brew pub North High Brewing, to
Bakery Our CupCakery, to
Ramen spot Fukuryu Ramen, to
North Market Bridge Park’s Lan Viet and Falafel Kitchen, to
European cuisine sit-down restaurant Fado’s Pub & Kitchen.

Visit Dublin, Ohio

Local love

Bethia Woolf

While many of these spots may not be new to Dublin residents, the experiences can provide a fun sampling of menus and a new lens into the history and craft of each business. At Our CupCakery, the staff gives a tour of the space and shares information about the innerworkings of the baking process.

“We tend to be pretty animated and tell funny stories,” Our CupCakery Chief Creative Officer Linda Kick says. “We explain what our business model is, then we bring them back into the kitchen so they get to see a commercial bakery. Then we explain some of the equipment and some of the upgrades of equipment over the years because one of our mixers is 75 years old and the other is much, much newer.”

The tour has also allowed its host restaurants to experiment with the menu, highlighting different flavor profiles and even testing the reception of new recipes.

For established community restaurants, opportunities to spotlight their menu staples and newcomers have helped revitalize connections with the community, bringing new and previous customers alike through the door who are intrigued about the food.

“I think it’s a great idea for people who have already dined with us to get a better insight into how we do things here,” says Jason Lam, creative director at Fukuryu Ramen. “I also think it’s great for people that may have been pretty apprehensive to try our type of food before to get a look and to see what we do, how we do things and to have a small tasting to try before they want to come in and commit to a full meal.”

Bethia Woolf

Whether it’s a couple sharing the gems of Dublin with visiting friends or family, grandparents bringing along their grandchildren for some bites or new residents diving into the area, the tour offers new, unique types of experiences across restaurants.

“It’s just a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon, whether you do it with a group of family or friends or you do it as a date,” Woolf says. “People just find it a fun way to explore and learn a little more about the community, and maybe they’ll discover a new favorite restaurant.”