Food Tourism is the Best Tourism

The Wedge Salad at Delmonico’s

I read a post on Threads this morning while scrolling through the news in bed. It read: “I can’t travel with people who make food the entire point of the vacation.”

The comments were fantastic, as you might imagine, but the entire exchange made me think for a second. I don’t even remember what it was like to travel for the sake of sight-seeing rather than eating. I’ve done it before, but it seems like another life at this point. Even when I was broke, backpacking through Eastern Europe at 23 years of age, I was still seeking out food at every turn. Granted, not at the level that I can afford at this stage in my life, but food nevertheless.

I have friends who are not food motivated, so I understand how frustrating it must be for them to hang out with people who want to eat all day long. I’ve also worked around younger people who are very much into the modern age of fitness on social media. They adhere to “bowl” culture, where daily protein needs are mixed into various salad bowls for easy-to-consume nutrition, and they wear their exercise clothing 24/7 as a statement about their commitment. While many of these people are kind and generally pleasant, we’re never going to be close friends.

Even before my dad passed away in 2024, I’ve been aware of how short life is. It was for that reason that I drove up to visit him every month after he was diagnosed with blood cancer, the car packed with all sorts of crazy food items for us to cook, consume, and enjoy for as long as we could. As Anthony Bourdain once said, food, family, and time together at the table aren’t luxuries; they’re the entire point of living. I’m very much aware of how much time I have left on this planet. I don’t believe in heaven. I don’t think we’re going to be reunited with friends and family in the afterlife. I think this is it. The time you have now is all you’re going to get, so I’m going to spend it eating and drinking with my wife for as long as I possibly can.

Salade de volaille au pistou at La Goulue

That being said, I’m someone who prioritizes tradition and cultural history over culinary technique. I could give a flying fuck about Michelin stars or molecular gastronomy. There are so many other inputs that go into the enjoyment of dining out, especially in a place like New York City, we’re I’ve been holed up for the last week. Last night, I had dinner at Delmonico’s for the first time. It’s not just the oldest fine dining restaurant in America (opened in 1837), it’s also where steakhouse culture was invented. Even if there are other steakhouses doing it better at this point, that history plays into the experience. Don’t we visit heritage destinations and museums for the same reason? To see where history unfolded? Well, fucking Charles Dickens and Abe Lincoln have dined at Delmonico’s. It’s where the wedge salad was invented, along with eggs Benedict and baked Alaska. That’s history you can eat!

On the upper east side over at La Goulue, a French bistro that’s been a fixture of the neighborhood since it opened in 1972, you can imagine what it must have been like during those early years. I’ve seen photos of Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, and Alice Cooper dining together at the exact same table where my wife and I had lunch yesterday. I sat there, eating a cheese souflée and salad, drinking a gin martini, thinking about all of these cultural icons and how incredible that conversation must have been. No different than when I had a drink earlier in the week downtown at Fraunces Tavern, where George Washington said farewell to his men before heading out to fight the British.

The Lasagna della Nonna at Mark’s Off Madison

Isn’t part of visiting any destination to see and experience how the locals live? Every time I come to New York, I try to find a very typical spot with great food that isn’t on any top ten list, yet delivers a fantastic meal with some local color. Mark’s Off Madison was exactly that. A combination of Jewish and Italian foods run by former Barney’s chef Mark Strausman, it has everything you love about New York in one spot and the quality was incredible. The lasagna was one of the best I’ve ever had, with a meat sauce that was so flavorful and savory. Great pizza with a chewy crust. Bagels, matzo ball soup, black and white cookies (changed to orange and blue for the Knicks), and a great wine list, to boot.

My wife and I chatted with four older ladies who had been coming there for years and they gave us all their recommendations. Mark himself brought us our cookies. The servers were old school Manhattan residents with all sorts of great quips. That meal gave me a glimpse of what it might feel like to live in New York, rather than pack myself in with the tourists at all the other hotspots in town.

For those who aren’t food motivated, there’s always the Met or the Guggenheim. Maybe a walk through Times Square or Central Park. But I can’t imagine traveling all the way to New York without making food the primary focus. If I couldn’t eat my way through Manhattan, walking mile after mile in the process, I’d rather just stay at home.

-David Driscoll