Dine deeper with a walking LA Food Tour of Beverly Hills

The first thing I book when traveling solo to a new city is a walking food tour, which helps to gain a better understanding of the history and layout of an area. Now, you can experience Los Angeles in a different way with a walking LA Food Tour of Beverly Hills. Chief Experience Officer Brian Rodda combines his storytelling skills, Italian heritage food sensibilities, and professional tour guide experiences (as he ran tours in Carmel during the pandemic), to create LA Food Tours.

You might have flashbacks of Beverly Hills Cop as you walk towards City Hall or visions of movies like Clueless while prancing down Rodeo Drive, but this city in Los Angeles County has intrigued people for decades. Beverly Hills has evolved into a shopping, restaurant, and beauty salon mecca while remaining a close community. On my walk to meet the tour group, I ran into Les Bronte, a former mayor from 1998, who happened to be volunteering that morning for CPR.

The 3+ hour “Film, Food, and Fashion” tour of Beverly Hills includes at least 5 generous bites and 2 adult beverages. The restaurants chosen represent the past, present, and future of Beverly Hills. Guests are sent a video so they know where to meet at City Hall and are happily greeted with tote bags, water, and a fun pin to take home. Brian also creates a photo bank of the tour for guests to keep and use.

Chief Experience Officer Brian Rodda reminding us to look down to remember the legends on the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style.

Our tour offered a better sense of the area’s history and architecture – inside restaurants, outside at cafes, and on fashion house rooftops. The tour opened my eyes to things I have walked by and not paid attention to for 17 years of living in LA.

I left stuffed plus a bit buzzed as our tour included a Mezcal cocktail, a delicious glass of wine ( as guests can choose from white or red wine or beer) at the first 11:30 AM stop, and bubbly on a fashion house rooftop with fancy chocolates. Nonalcoholic options are provided too as well as accommodations for dietary restrictions when you sign up. We tried so many bites and sips – like the Hailey Bieber strawberry smoothie that went viral on TikTok, baked vegan buffalo cauliflower bites, tacos with cheese griddled around the meat, Caesar salad topped with shaved truffles, and more. One of my favorite stops was a secret cereal-infused ice cream spot in the back of a fashion house.

There were many facts, stories, buildings, and restaurants unveiled that were new to me. I don’t want to give away the tour, but did you know the first Cheesecake Factory opened in Beverly Hills in 1976 after the cheesecake maker owners came from the east coast and decided to open a restaurant? Now there are more than 200 locations!

Did you know there is a Frank Lloyd Wright building in Beverly Hills that can’t be knocked down thanks to the Beverly Hills Historical Society? Currently, the unique structure with what looks like a skinny white pagoda sits vacant. Learn about these sites and more on the tour.

Did you know Beverly Hills was once a lima bean town where water came down from the hills?

**Don’t miss the Mr. Brainwash art (an LA icon) along the street or hop on over later to The Mr. Brainwash Museum**

Or that Beverly Hills has had 9 female mayors but the real first lady in the 1800s was Maria Rita Valdez de Villa. Look her up!

Have you heard about the chocolatier who in the 1950s inspired Lucille Ball to film a scene of herself eating bonbons off a chocolate conveyor belt?

Burton E. Green was an American oilman and real estate developer in the 1900s who was critical to the development of Beverly Hills. His wife is credited for naming Beverly Hills as she was inspired by the name Beverly Farms in Massachusetts where President Taft was vacationing so she switched Farms for Hills and ‘Beverly Hills’ was born. In 1914, the town was incorporated but the real draw that got people to buy land here was the Beverly Hills Hotel. Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were the first to move to Beverly Hills, attracting the silent film era stars. And the rest is history.

We all know media plants seeds in our heads and that is exactly what happened with the show The Beverly Hillbillies, which ran for 9 seasons in the 1960s. Americans loved it and visualized the “American Dream” as Beverly Hills. The allure of the town began to take off from the show. In later years, Fred Hayman, the godfather of Beverly Hills, brought many high-end luxury brands as he wanted to make the area a destination location and compete with Fifth Avenue in NYC. He was the founder of Giorgio Beverly Hills in 1961.

This LA Food Tour is not only fun for locals but a great way for out-of-towners to get to know the Hills of Beverly. It also makes a fun way to spend a day for a birthday or bachelorette party.

Inquire about VIP Tours as one ends with a very private top-tier fashion house experience. Stay tuned as LA Food Tours plans to expand to West Hollywood with a Brianna’s Drag Queen Walking Food Tour and Santa Monica soon after.

Book here: https://lafoodtours.com/

Don’t miss out on our LaLaScoop Rate as they are extending the introductory rate of $129 for our readers. All tours must be booked by September 30 and enjoyed by December 1st! Take advantage of this rate as a gift for birthdays, anniversaries, team building, etc…or a special day for you! Use Code: FFFINTRORATE at checkout.