past tours
Drink and Democracy: A Stroll Down Kentucky's Bourbon Trail
Oct. 2-4, 2008

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Government and good drink grew up together on the American frontier, with bourbon playing a key role in every election. The taverns that served the increasingly smooth corn whiskey, such as Abe Lincoln's Illinois establishment that history textbooks have since reinvented as a general store, lubricated the discussions on which democracy was built. (And if discussion didn't produce a favorite candidate, the jugs distributed at polling places usually did.) We'll celebrate this joint history by visiting the nation's oldest distilleries in the company of bourbon experts and partaking of the feasts served at local political rallies in these last weeks before the election. In addition to a training course in bourbon appreciation, our tour will include a cooperage visit and a sampling of bourbon cocktails created by local mixologists in honor of the folks at the top of the ticket.
The Harriette Arnow Fundraiser Dinner
June 27, 2008

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Pigging Out and About
Memphis, Tennessee*, Sept. 13-15, 2007
*and environs

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Video recap of Tour now online - click here to enjoy the video!

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Join The American Table Culinary Tours for an edible expedition through West Tennessee, where no backyard is bbq complete without a jerry-rigged smoker. Surveys say folks here indulge their cravings for sauced pork done right no fewer than once a week: After this trip, you'll marvel at their restraint.

We'll pilgrimage to the region's rural joints and urban ‘cue stands in the company of barbecue experts, including Smokestack Lightning author Lolis Eric Elie.

Following a route paved by our friends at the Southern Foodways Alliance, we'll inhale the sweet smoke rising from the pits and sample the tender meat emerging from them. We'll personally petition legendary pit masters to share their secrets. And we'll earn our judging credentials from the Memphis Barbecue Association, sponsor of the world's biggest barbecue contest.