It seems like for every post we do about fried food or bacon we try to make it up with a healthy one. So here it is! The Urban Food Crawl is a new vegan food tour created by downtown Los Angeles residents Jen Bardekoff and Sheri Wheeler. We interviewed the creators about the food crawl and learned about where they like to drink, eat and travel.

Drink Eat Travel: How did you come up with the idea?
Jen Bardekoff: We found that our friends kept asking us for the best restaurants to go because we love to find hidden gems in areas that people might not typically think to go to. We’re both vegan, and we wanted to create a food tour that features delicious vegan food.

DET: How did you pick the restaurants?
JB: As Downtown LA residents, we thought Downtown would be a great spot for our first tour. We love the friendly community, beautiful architecture, and unique restaurants and bars. We chose the restaurants based on a combination of taste and atmosphere. We visit these restaurants frequently, and we picked our favorite spots to share with our tour attendees. We also wanted to show a progression of a meal throughout the tour by starting with appetizers, then featuring entree dishes, and ending with a satisfying dessert.

DET: How many people per tour?
JB: There will be 8-10 people on each tour — we would like to keep the group relatively small so people can get to know one another.

DET: Where do you like to drink?
JB & SW: For cocktails, we go to The Varnish a lot — it’s right around the corner from us and the mixologists are incredibly talented. Their concoctions never cease to amaze us. For beer, we love Tony’s Darts Away in Burbank. They have an impressive selection of California craft beer.

DET: Eat?
JB & SW: Susan Feniger’s Street. Her menu of global street food is extremely flavorful, interesting, and delicious, and the atmosphere is always energetic and fun. We love that Susan herself will walk around the restaurant, greet customers, and offer blankets to those sitting outside on chilly evenings.

DET: And travel?
JB & SW: It’s a complete toss-up between Austin, TX and Portland, OR. They have the good food and drinks covered, and the people are really friendly and cool.

DET: What’s for dessert?
JB: A sweet and delightful treat from Babycakes NYC!

Cost?
$65

When?
Saturday, August 27 at 2 PM
Saturday, September 3 at 2 PM
Saturday, September 10 at 2 PM
Saturday, September 17 at 2 PM
Saturday, September 24 at 2 PM
Saturday, October 1 at 2 PM
Saturday, October 8 at 2 PM
Saturday, October 15 at 2 PM
Saturday, October 22 at 2 PM
Saturday, October 29 at 2 PM

Where?
Downtown Los Angeles

Additional Information
Buy tickets!
http://www.urbanfoodcrawl.com