Fork and the Road

My friends purchased the «Unsung Chicago Classics tour» (August 30, 2009) for my birthday. It was a beautiful day, and the places we stopped at were terrific: Maxwell St. Market for Mexican food, flambéed saganaki at the Parthenon in Greektown (accompanied with tasty Tzatziki & non-​Kronos Gyro meat!), and then the to-​die-​for Jibarito at Boriquen in Humboldt Park.
The jibarito is sandwich made with flattened, double deep-​fried green plantains instead of bread and also contains a delicious garlic mayo. It is a Puerto Rican specialty of Chicago (inspired by a similar sandwich in Puerto Rico) and made for an excellent end to the tour.
Sharon and Dimitra were terrific leaders, and their vast knowledge of the culinary scene in Chicago made this day as much a lesson in further restaurants to visit as a tour of under-​appreciated Chicago gems.
The only downside to the tour was that we had to follow traffic laws (fully stopping and waiting at red lights, etc.), which can become cumbersome in a medium-​sized group (though I recognize there is no legal way around this for the company). For similar reasons, consuming alcohol is also prohibited. [However, nothing prevents you from recreating a tour later while consuming libations at your own risk.]
I wholeheartedly recommend any and all of the tours to anyone who loves cycling, loves food, or simply wants to explore new areas of Chicago. I’ve noticed that publicity and good reviews lead the tours to sell out quickly, so make sure to book as far in advance as possible for the new offerings of the 2011 season.

Loved the tour, great way to see the city. Sampling some of Chicago’s unique take on ethnic foods was really interesting and delicious. Thanks Sharon.

This is a fantastic way to see Chicago and eat at some excellent establishments you might not otherwise know about. A great activity for tourists, but I’d just as soon recommend Fork and the Road for fellow city-​dwellers.
You don’t have to be an avid foodie or an avid cyclist for it to be accessible, either! Sharon and Dimitra are excellent tour guides on the street and in the restaurants alike; they know their routes and they really know their food! I joined the tour alone, and the other riders were friendly and fun to spend the afternoon with.
Fork and the Road offers a truly unique and thoroughly enjoyable way to experience Chicago! I’ll be back.

I did the International BBQ tour yesterday and LOVED IT! What a great way to see the city and try some amazing foods! Dimitra and Sharon could not have been nicer… they were very engaging and just really cool chicks. They not only knew a lot about the places we visited and the types of foods we tried, but would point out places along the way to check out, which was cool (I love a good recommendation). We were also able to go back into the kitchens at a few of the places to check out how they were BBQ-​ing our food (never seen a clay oven before!). And the food was AMAZING… they warned us at the beginning to pace ourselves on the eating, but I completely gorged at every stop and it was so worth it (and we were biking, so I didn’t feel guilty…)
I’ve been in Chicago several years now and this was definitely something different and fun that I really enjoyed. Dimitra and Sharon have a great thing going and were discussing all of the ideas they have for upcoming tours, so I would totally recommend this experience to anyone who loves food and is just looking for something unique and fun!