A tour of some of Barcelona’s unique restaurants inspired Jody Nakoneshny to try and bring the experience home to Chestermere.
“It was a really, really enjoyable evening because it was socializing, we got to be immersed a little bit in the culture,” she said, “for me it was very memorable,” said Jody Nakoneshny.
Taking the tour on the backs of motorcycles, the tourists would spend about 45 minutes to an hour enjoying a glass of wine and an appetizer before continuing to the next restaurant.
In total they toured about four unique eateries in the Spanish city.
With that experience in mind, Nakoneshny has organized Chestermere’s first Tapas Tour.
While not Barcelona, Nakoneshny said Chestermere is, “pretty unique with some pretty cool businesses out here.”
After discussing her idea with some of the local restaurants, Nakoneshny settled on 5 local establishments for the tour to visit.
“It’s a challenge because we don’t want to exclude any body but there is a limit of how many stops you can make, how many drinks you can have and how many appetizers you can have,” she said.
“Even this with 5 restaurants is a four or five-hour tour on its own.”
The Tapas Tour is being held on May 26 from 1-7 p.m. and has room for 24 people but was almost sold out by May 10.
The ticket includes the tour, appetizers and drinks at each location and the transportation to each location.
Starting and finishing at the Dockside Bar and Grill, the tour will also be going to Township 24 Brewery, Van Son, Pour Beer Market, Crazy Pasta, and Masala Twist.
In addition to being a really nice experience, the tour will give the participating restaurants the opportunity to showcase what they offer the community.
“Some people have maybe not visited the restaurant, or they don’t know it’s there,” said Nakoneshny.
Her hope is that the tour will help spread the word about the great places people can go and eat here in the city.
“Taking the people to the businesses so they can see where they’re located, what their location looks like, what their menu is like, what their food tastes like,” she said.
If Nakoneshny is successful in importing the fun experience she had in Barcelona, she’d like to make the tour an annual event.
“If it turns into something that’s really well received and its enjoyable and people would like to see more it would be nice to maybe expand it and maybe we can tour other restaurants, or we can find a way to include all the local businesses,” she said.
As the tour grows, she’d also be interested in partnering with the city or the chamber of commerce for the event.
“I really like that idea because I think it’s a different approach to highlighting some of the local businesses out here,” she said.
For more info or to sponsor the tour or to provide feedback on the tour contact Nakoneshny at contact@thelakeshorespa.com.
