In January Dishcrawl debuted in Santa Cruz and took 35 people to sample dishes in four downtown restaurants. It returns Tuesday Feb. 26.
The company, founded by a young San Jose State grad, has been growing quickly across the country because of a formula that matches people wanting to try new restaurants with the chefs who serve them their best.
It's a look behind the curtain that most people trying a new restaurant never get. Crawlers visited the Pono Grill, Cafe Mare, Rosie McCann's and Mission Hill Creamery. The venues are kept secret until the crawl. Organizers gave one hint for the new one: it's one of the newest downtown dineries from one of the most exotic locales.
"It was great," said former Cal Poly food studies student Emma Kitchen, a vegetarian who works at Martinelli's, of her first experience. "My favorite was the Italian place (Cafe Mare), because of the eggplant."
"This brings restaurants to the forefront," organizer Wesley Katayama told Patch in January. "This gets restaurants and staffs to reach out and introduce themselves and it lets people see these places in a new light."
He says the format builds loyal customers because they get to see the inner workings of the restaurant and meet the people they might miss if they were just out for a meal.
To buy tickets click here. Enter code: scpatchreaders for $10 off.
To read about other local Crawls, click here.
