Pasadena Puts on City-Sponsored Food Tour, WinePas

Selections from We Olive presented with wine pairings inside one of Pasadena's boutique retails shops during WinePas. Photo by The Foodie Biz

​Old Town Pasadena put on a clever spin on food events, melding together the city’s restaurants together with its boutique retail shops for an intriguing walking food tour. WinePas was designed to showcase some of the town’s quaint and tasteful (in more ways than one) highlights while raising money for the Pasadena Educational Foundation, which supports grants for the city’s teachers.

Some of those local teachers doubled as guides for this special evening, donning pastel-orange shirts and leading small groups through narrow corridors just off the Old Town’s iconic Colorado Boulevard. It was a new discovery of the area, even for the most seasoned Pasadena locals.

While most food tours lead groups through restaurants, WinePas took a different approach by bringing restaurants and guests alike into local retail shops. The first stop took people into Gold Bug, a specialty trinket store with exotic merchandise sourced from across the world, where amidst gemstones and faux cow skulls stood a booth for Bone Kettle, who served their papaya salad and steak tartare.

The process repeated five times, where patrons got a new tandem dining and shopping experience each step of the way. Maestro’s ceviche and take on Mexican street corn, The Pan’s everything pizza, and Fish Wives’ crab cakes were some of the additional culinary highlights, hosted in retail shops Finn + Willow, Fresh and Sugarfina respectively.

The tour ended at The Celler, an alluring ‘hidden’ wine room in the heart of Old Town. Michael Calderon, regionally acclaimed as “Mr. Pasadena,” served as the event’s Title Host and Sponsor and was present to spread jubilance throughout the experience. Calderon played a large role in planning the event as well as funding it, and spoke to combining retail and food as a means to expose patrons to the community in a new way.

All proceeds from WinePas go directly to the Pasadena Educational Foundation. Whether this becomes an annual festivity is to be determined, but it was undoubtedly met with great enjoyment for all who participated. For more information, visit WinePas.com.