Midgi Moore loves food, and she loves Juneau. Less than two years ago, she started a business that allowed her to focus on both \u2014 Juneau Food Tours. She gave her first tour in May 2015.<\/p>\n
Moore, a food columnist for the Capital City Weekly, used to work at the Juneau Convention & Visitors Bureau.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I took the knowledge I learned in the visitor industry and my passion for food and writing, and combined it into the tour,\u201d Moore said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n
She was standing on the seawalk near Twisted Fish, holding orange reusable gift bags and waiting for her next group to arrive. Inside the bag, which she gives to every customer, was a bag of toffee from Chef Stef\u2019s, cookies from the Taku Glacier Lodge, recipes and coupons for local businesses.<\/p>\n
On that particular day, an additional item was in the bag \u2014 an orange T-shirt that said, \u201c#1,000happybellies.\u201d Moore was celebrating the occasion of feeding her one-thousandth customer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big deal to me. I\u2019m so excited. I thought it\u2019d be three years until I got to this point,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
[Meals with Midgi: Local scallops inspired by a local chef<\/a>]<\/p>\n Moore\u2019s idea of bringing visitors to sample food at local Juneau businesses took off faster than she anticipated. Last season, she fed about 560 people. This season, sales have increased by 50 percent, she said.<\/p>\n Stops include sampling rockfish tostados at Salt, fusion nachos at V\u2019s Cellar Door and charcuterie at Panhandle Provisions. Moore pays every business she visits and people on her tour often return to those places for meals later in the day, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy business is built on the success of other businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n Moore\u2019s is growing as culinary tourism gains in popularity around the world. She said the reason is simple \u2014 food allows a visitor to connect to a place.<\/p>\n \u201cWe go into the heart of the city. We get off the main visitors\u2019 area. I tell my customers, \u2018I\u2019m going to take you on a non-touristy tour. I\u2019m going to take you where the locals go, where I go, where I hang out with my husband and my friends, and where we go to eat and drink,\u2019\u201d Moore said. \u201cThat\u2019s what visitors are seeking; they want to be immersed in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Mike Edgington, who visited Juneau from the St. Louis area, said he and his daughter were on the tour because \u201cwe love to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n Edgington lived in Germany for seven years and traveled Europe sampling the cuisine. For his first cruise in the United States, he said the priority was food. He considered visiting the Mendenhall Glacier, but when he saw Juneau Food Tours as an excursion option, he was sold.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can go and look at all the sites and they\u2019re nice, but getting a taste of something is really fun,\u201d Edgington said.<\/p>\n Love for food and the people who make it<\/strong><\/p>\n Each tour (which lasts 2 1\/2 hours) begins at the Alaska Commercial Fishermen\u2019s Memorial.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason we start here is because there\u2019s a lot of seafood on the tour and I want people to know where their food comes from and about the men and women who bring it to us,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n One of Moore\u2019s favorite things about her business is converting fish-haters to fish-lovers with stops like Tracy\u2019s King Crab Shack and Deckhand Dave\u2019s.<\/p>\n [Making Local Work: New fish taco stand opens in downtown Juneau<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had so many people who say, \u2018I don\u2019t like this, I don\u2019t like that,\u2019 and the minute they get Tracy\u2019s bisque, their world is rocked and now they\u2019re like, \u2018Bring me more food.\u2019 Bisque is like the gateway seafood, and then they\u2019ll try whatever else,\u201d Moore said, laughing.<\/p>\n She doesn\u2019t blame people for thinking they don\u2019t like seafood. She attributes the phenomenon to people having bad fish at some point in their lives, likely in their childhood.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need good fish, and Alaska has the best,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n On that particular tour, which included four passengers from the cruise ship Princess Crown and two travel bloggers, it didn\u2019t seem like anyone was adverse to seafood. They eagerly sampled the crab bisque with comments like, \u201cWow, it\u2019s so good.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides the sampling, the tour is part local history, part Juneau restaurant trivia. Moore also interjects her own general food opinions, like, \u201cPut it on a stick and it\u2019s going to be fabulous,\u201d and, \u201cIf you put bacon on it, I\u2019m all in.\u201d<\/p>\n Her love for Juneau\u2019s food and the people who make it is evident. At the second tasting near the downtown public library, she fondly introduced Dave McCasland of the food truck Deckhand Dave\u2019s, then looked at him and said, \u201cI wish I had another daughter I could marry you off to.\u201d<\/p>\n Love life aside, McCasland said he\u2019s \u201cstoked\u201d to be a stop on Moore\u2019s food tour.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been super helpful. I get more business, I get people that are super into food and they\u2019re all happy, and that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As the group bit into panko-crusted Coho salmon bites dipped into scratch-made tartar sauce, there were sounds of satisfaction.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s amazing,\u201d one customer said.<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n Read more news:<\/strong><\/p>\n OK to grow, OK to go: Rainforest Farms puts pot in pots at Juneau’s first cannabis farm<\/a><\/p>\n Juneau nonprofit works to build a $25 million assisted living community for seniors<\/a><\/p>\n