This year, I was accepted into the Thomasville Leadership Class of 41.

One Thursday out of the month, the class meets up and learns about what our community has to offer. I decided not to document my personal experiences in order to keep the class a surprise for those who come behind me. However, I did want to share about my experience this past Thursday.

Our class was divided into two groups and we partook in the Taste of Thomasville Food Tour.

My group was lucky enough to have Deborah as our Tour Guide.

Debra, or “Deb” as she prefers is the founder of the Taste of Thomasville. She is a retired city school teacher, and jumped into her career as a tour guide after attending a food tour in Charleston. She returned home and wondered why Thomasville, which is home to many great restaurants, couldn’t offer this. That’s when she began researching and dove in head first to a new adventure. Deb headed out to Chicago to learn how to do food tours and returned to offer her first Taste of Thomasville food tour on March 24, 2013.

Since then, she has won the Small Business of the Year and completed more than 1,000 food tours for people from all walks of life.

Prior to attending this, I had never been on any food tour.

I am what some may call a picky eater.

My favorite foods are that of a child: chicken tenders, hamburgers, French fries, honeybuns, Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes.

I say that to say, I wasn’t sure I was the ideal person for this food tour.

Nevertheless, I followed Deb around to our stops.

Having never been on a food tour, I wasn’t sure how one person would eat something from every restaurant and not be stuffed, but I quickly learned everything is a small portion crafted just for the tour.

Our first stop was Jonah’s. Each of us got a small portion of their famous Shrimp and Grits, and the history behind Jonah’s. Of course, we got the famous hush puppy too. I don’t eat Shrimp, but the grits were fantastic. Deb also made sure to cater to our classmate who had a shellfish allergy, ensuring she got something just as divine.

We then headed over to a small courtyard behind Relish, where we tasted cheeses from Sweet Grass Dairy.

While walking to Relish, we found a small envelope that said open for a surprise.

Originally, we thought Deb did it to make our tour more fun, but it turns out Rich Curtis’ class had made small handwritten notes and hidden them around Downtown Thomasville.

We opened our note to see “You are loved!” written on a sunshine.

After the initial surprise note, our group’s mission became to find them, while still enjoying food, of course.

I was lucky enough to find another one in a tree. It was a narwhal with the message, “You are unique!”

En route to our next stop at George and Louis, Deb provided us with historical facts about various homes and churches we passed.

Maybe I’m late to the game, but did y’all know several church windows in town were made by Louis Tiffany?

While at George and Louis, we had their famous Greek salad and fried green tomatoes. The fried green tomatoes may have been my favorite dish of the day!

After we walked past the Big Oak, where we had our picture taken. I’m embarrassed to admit, but the entire time I’ve lived here, I thought the Big Oak was a different tree. So, the tour was quite enlightening.

We then headed over to AJ Moonspin and had a secret pizza that was not on the menu, and it was quite good.

Continuing onward, we walked to Grassroots, where we got a taste of their Christmas blend. Apparently, most tours get a cold brew, but being the holidays, we got a special treat. That special treat was made only sweeter by our final stop at The Bookshelf, where we had macarons from Sweet Cacao. I had the birthday cake flavor and it was divine.

For a picky eater, this tour was perfect. It highlighted some of Thomasville’s most popular restaurants, but no food was too eccentric.

I think food tours in any city have scared me in the past, because I don’t want to pay an ungodly amount and be forced into eating caviar, quail, duck, or rabbit stew that I know has a place in some people’s palate, but not mine.

Overall, I highly suggest this tour if you have not tried it yet. I’m even thinking of getting my parents tickets for Christmas so they can experience it.