Food Drink

Going The Extra (Square) Mile: Meet Adelaide’s Newest Food Tour

Eat your way around Adelaide… Don’t mind if we do!

The newest Adelaide food tour company, and all round great folks at Square Mile Tours joined together with the fit crew at Lululemon Athletica Adelaide to create a one of a kind Tour Down Under foodie tour. We sent resident food muncher Hannah along. We didn’t tell her it was on a bike… And FYI no vehicles or humans were damaged in the making of this article.

I arrived on Leigh Street last week with a spring in my step. I had heard only wonderful things about new Adelaide food tour company, Square Mile Tours and an afternoon of touring our fair city’s finest food, coffee and cocktails? What more could I want!?

I strolled up to raw food cafe Combi, where we were to meet, I noticed most of the crowd were sporting sneakers and stylish activewear… I assumed these were all Lululemon folk. There were also plenty of bikes, but you know the Tour Down Under was on and plenty of people dig the two wheeled form of transport, I thought little of it. As I got closer I then noticed plenty of the crowd adjusting bike seats and fitting helmets. I won’t lie, a cold flush came over me upon the realisation that I too was destined to hop on a roadie.

Square Mile Tours

Side note: It has been at least 6 years since I rode a bicycle and I wasn’t all that great at it then. In addition to that fact, I’ve never ridden in traffic. But alas, there was no other option and I certainly wasn’t going to manage to run from venue to venue to keep up with my two wheeled friends.

But, initial gripping fear subsided, we began the most important element of the tour… eating! Oh, and getting to know our fellow tour-ees. Amongst the crowd were two professional English riders from the female TDU team (so I was in very safe hands) and feeling super privileged.

The fabulous Sam from Combi gave us all a brief run down on the Melbourne born business, their raw- wholefoods ethos and the treats they would be sharing for the arvo. We were blessed with mini tastings of their salted caramel slice, bounty balls and goji cacao balls. Then washed it down with their super popular Shine On smoothie (packed with mango, passionfruit, banana, spinach, coconut milk and mesquite). For someone who loves an indulgent treat, I was surprised at how much I adored the sneaky healthier options. My tastebuds were certainly fooled. And I swear my pants even felt a little looser afterwards.

Square Mile Tours

After they had buttered me up with sweet treats, I was eventually convinced that I had to don my helmet and get pedaling towards the coffee kings of Adelaide’s cafe, Monday’s Coffee Store. Honestly dodging the traffic of Hindley Street and battling buses down Curry Street was nerve-wracking for someone with my (poor) level of balance and hand eye coordination; but Lululemon’s delightful team were by my side to ensure a mental breakdown didn’t ensue… and formed a human/bike protective shield around me so as to assure that the buses would at least hit them first. Phew.

Square Mile Tours Square Mile Tours

At Monday’s we tried coffee cupping. It involved slurping and spitting freshly and precisely brewed black coffee to truly appreciate all the flavour notes of the coffee. Coffee expert Jarrad advised us to make the most obnoxious slurping noise we could, to truly absorb all the characteristics of the coffee. I’m not sure if he was just messing with us or this is a legitimate science, but regardless, it made for a lot of laughs and a delightful afternoon for all the other visiting guests trying to enjoy their lattes. We learned a lot about coffee roasting processes and left feeling super peppy.

We hopped on our blazing saddles to the last delicious location; swanky and suave Nola Bar. I must say by this part of the journey, winding through quaint backstreets, I definitely felt like I had the hang of this cycling thing. It’s quite enjoyable when there’s less impending death on the cards.

Square Mile Tours Square Mile Tours

The staff at Nola were, as always, delightful. Owner Ollie gave the group a run down on the rich history of the venue, their vibrant menu and the visions for the future. It’s clear that they’re on to a good thing… and so were we with their polenta coated green tomatoes and unforgettable fried chicken (our raw and healthy starters from Combi now a distant memory).

We spent the rest of the afternoon sipping hurricane cocktails and quenching our thirst from all the hard cardio (that I convinced myself I’d completed). I couldn’t recommend Square Mile Tours highly enough. The staff at Square Mile, Lululemon Adelaide and each individual venue were so friendly and accommodating to our loud babbling bunch. It was also really heartwarming to see a group of strangers laughing and bonding over a shared love for food.

Although this specific tour is not available at all times there are some other fantastic Square Mile Tours that you can hop on board. They aren’t all on bikes either, though I’m informed that the ones that are are generally much more leisurely than our Tour Down Under specific route. So you can all rest easy!

Glam will certainly be back for the roaming degustation tour, that’s the next on our list! And the cafe crawl featuring 5 different coffee shops sounds like it would answer all our caffeinated prayers. Might have to practice the ol’ riding skills first though.

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