Edible Excursions
Edible Excursions is a woman-owned, San Francisco Bay Area walking food tour company founded in 2004 that operates guided culinary tours across San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland for tourists, locals, corporate groups, and private celebrations.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2004
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What Edible Excursions does
Edible Excursions is a woman-owned, locally operated walking food tour company headquartered in San Francisco and operating across San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland. Founded in 2004 by Lisa Rogovin and registered as Lisa Jill LLC, the company runs guided public tours featuring 6-9 food tastings across curated neighborhood routes, with ticket prices ranging from $89 to $165 per person depending on tour length and inclusions. The core product lines are public walking food tours (Ferry Building, Japantown, Mission District, North Berkeley, Oakland Temescal, Uptown Oakland, and specialty tours such as the West Berkeley Wine Block and Japantown Just Desserts tours) and quote-based private/custom tours for corporate groups, family gatherings, and celebrations, supplemented by gift cards and on-request cooking and cocktail classes.
The company operates with no proprietary technology stack; distribution and bookings run through a Peek-powered booking widget integrated into edibleexcursions.net, while marketing is executed via blog content, Instagram, email newsletter, and earned media coverage. Delivery is handled by a roster of 12+ Epicurean Concierges — food industry professionals including chefs, food writers, cookbook authors, and SF Cooking School graduates — supported by two core staff (Founder/Chief Eating Officer Lisa Rogovin and Operations Manager Amy Skepner, who joined in 2018). The supply side is anchored by 20+ years of relationships with 30+ local restaurants, artisans, and food producers, including flagship tie-ups with celebrity chef Tanya Holland (Uptown Oakland tour) and the Mission Vibrant small-business collective (Taste of the Mission tour).
The revenue model is transaction-based across customer segments: individual tourists and local food enthusiasts purchasing public tour tickets, mid-market corporate teams booking private group experiences, and private celebration groups (birthday parties, bachelorettes, family gatherings) purchasing custom itineraries. Pricing is unit-based for public tours (pay-as-you-go) and quote-based for private bookings, with a 4-guest minimum and non-refundable but transferable tickets. The company is privately held with no external funding, no parent company, and operates entirely within the San Francisco Bay Area.
Edible Excursions firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Edible Excursions
- Legal name
- Lisa Jill LLC
- Website
- https://edibleexcursions.net
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2004
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Edible Excursions is a woman-owned, San Francisco Bay Area walking food tour company founded in 2004 that operates guided culinary tours across San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland for tourists, locals, corporate groups, and private celebrations.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Edible Excursions industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Culinary Tourism
- NAICS
- Tour Operators (561520)
- SIC
- Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Food, Market & Culinary Culture Tours (THAJAAAG)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Culinary Walking & Market Tours (THAJAGAA)
Keywords
Where Edible Excursions is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Edible Excursions business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain
Revenue model
- Public Tour Tickets: Individual tickets sold to consumers for scheduled public walking food tours across San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland neighborhoods. Tours include food tastings from 6-9 local partner establishments per 2-3 hour tour.
- Private/Custom Tours: Custom private food tours booked for groups including corporate team building, birthday parties, bachelorette outings, family gatherings, and special events. Includes custom itinerary creation and group booking.
- Gift Cards: Gift certificates sold for tours, allowing recipients to book any public tour experience.
- Cooking & Cocktail Classes: Private cooking classes and cocktail making classes offered upon request as add-on experiences.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Ferry Building Food Tour |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | North Berkeley Food Tour (Formerly Gourmet Ghetto) |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Oakland Temescal Tastes Tour |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Taste of the Mission Food Tour |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Mission 18th Street Food Tour |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Tanya Holland's Uptown Oakland Food Tour |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Edible Excursions product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Edible Excursions is a Bay Area walking food tour operator that runs guided multi-stop tasting experiences through neighborhoods in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland. Each tour visits several locally-owned eateries with a guide (Epicurean Concierge), combines cultural/historical narration with food tastings, and is offered as a fixed public route or as a fully customized private/group itinerary. Additional offerings include gift cards, corporate/private team-building tours, and add-on cooking and cocktail classes.
Product overview
Edible Excursions is a woman-owned, award-winning walking food tour company operating since 2004 across San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland. The company offers public guided food tours as its core product, featuring 7-9 tastings across diverse neighborhoods, supplemented by private/custom tour offerings for groups. Key tour products include: Ferry Building and Farmers Market Tour (San Francisco), Japantown Food Tour, North Berkeley Food Tour (formerly Gourmet Ghetto), Oakland Temescal Tastes Tour, Mission District Tours (18th Street and Taste of the Mission), Tanya Holland's Uptown Oakland Tour, and specialty limited-time tours like the Just Desserts tour. All tours are led by food industry professionals including award-winning food writers, chefs, food TV alumni, and restaurant workers. The company also offers gift cards as an add-on product.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Public Food Tours Scheduled, fixed-itinerary guided walking food tours through Bay Area neighborhoods (San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland), featuring multiple food tastings at locally-owned eateries led by an Epicurean Concierge guide; aimed at individual tourists, locals, families, and small groups who book per-person tickets.
- Ferry Building Food Tour A specific scheduled walking food tour based around San Francisco's Ferry Building marketplace, featuring tastings at artisanal food vendors and narrated by a guide; priced per person.
- Japantown Food Tour A scheduled walking food tour through San Francisco's Japantown, featuring Japanese food tastings at multiple eateries with cultural narration by a guide; priced per person.
- Mission District Food Tour A scheduled walking food tour through San Francisco's Mission District, featuring tastings of local food and drink with historical/cultural commentary by a guide; priced per person.
- North Berkeley Food Tour A scheduled walking food tour through Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto, featuring tastings at artisanal food shops and eateries, with optional wine pairing; priced per person.
- Private and Custom Food Tours Fully customizable private walking food tours for groups, with custom itineraries, optional add-ons such as wine pairings and chocolate tastings, and a minimum guest requirement; priced via custom quote (starting around $135/person) and aimed at corporate team-building, special occasions, family gatherings, and visitor groups.
- Gift Cards Pre-paid gift cards for Edible Excursions food tours, redeemable across the company's tour offerings, available directly from the website.
- Cooking and Cocktail Classes Add-on cooking and cocktail-making classes for groups, organized through the private/custom tour channel as part of team-building or private events.
Quantifiable outcome
- 6-9 food tastings per tour from 7+ local partner establishments
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Edible Excursions
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Edible Excursions technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Edible Excursions partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered minor, core and flagship.
- West Berkeley Wine Block PartnersminorNew tour featuring nationally acclaimed natural wine makers in West Berkeley, partnering with urban natural wineries and tasting rooms. Tour showcases wine paired with local food producers and pop-up chefs.
- Mission VibrantcorePartnership with Mission Vibrant, a collective of over 30 small business owners and artists on Mission Street, to co-create the Taste of the Mission Food Tour. Mission Vibrant's mission is to revitalize Mission Street by assisting and empowering local businesses through events like Second Saturdays.
- Tanya HollandflagshipRenowned chef, author, and Top Chef competitor partnered with Edible Excursions to create Tanya Holland's Uptown Oakland Food Tour. Holland is the creative force behind Brown Sugar Kitchen and has been featured in multiple Edible Excursions tours.
- CUESAcorePartnership with CUESA (Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture), operator of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. CUESA runs the Market Match program for CalFresh EBT benefits and provides educational resources about sustainable farming.
- CHEFS ProgramminorEdible Excursions donates two food tours per year to CHEFS (Conquering Homelessness through Employment in Food Service), a culinary training program for homeless and at-risk individuals. Program run by Episcopal Community Services.
- Local Restaurants & Food Artisanscore30+ local partner restaurants, food artisans, farmers, and purveyors across San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland neighborhoods. Includes establishments like The Cheese Board Collective, Recchiuti, Miette, Dandelion Chocolate, Humphry Slocombe, Wise Sons, Tacolicious, and many others.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Edible Excursions competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Secret Food Tours: Multi-city walking food tour operator with presence in San Francisco, offering curated tasting experiences at multiple establishments per tour. Comparable business model and product format, with broader geographic reach.
- Avital Tours: Storytelling-driven food and culture walking tours in San Francisco with similar narrative-led, neighborhood-focussed tour format. Direct competitor for tourist and local foodie customers.
- Turia (formerly Crave Food Tours): Food tour operator offering small-group walking culinary tours in multiple US cities. Comparable tour model focused on locally-owned restaurants and artisan food producers.
- Food Tour Corporation (A Chef's Tour): San Francisco walking food tour company offering similar neighborhood-based culinary tours with multiple tasting stops. Direct peer in core product and target market.
- Delicious Experiences: Bay Area food tour and experience operator offering curated neighborhood culinary tours. Comparable walking food tour product targeting tourists and locals in the SF Bay Area.
- Walking Food Tours: National food tour operator with presence in multiple US cities including San Francisco. Comparable multi-stop tasting tour format and customer base.
- Local Tastes of the City (San Francisco Food Tours): San Francisco-based walking food tour operator offering similar guided culinary neighborhood tours. Most direct geographic competitor with overlapping product format and customer base.
Broad incumbents
- Withlocals: Marketplace for local-led food and cultural tours in multiple cities. Competes for tourist booking flow and offers similar curated tasting experiences via a platform model.
- Viator (Tripadvisor): Major online tour booking platform that resells food tours in San Francisco. Competes for tourist booking flow and pricing visibility, though not a direct operator.
- Airbnb Experiences: Global marketplace for bookable local experiences including food tours. While not a direct operator, it competes for discovery and bookings of food tour customers in the Bay Area.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights8 records
Customer concentration
Edible Excursions social profiles
Digital presenceEdible Excursions financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Edible Excursions leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Edible Excursions funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Edible Excursions M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Edible Excursions
What does Edible Excursions do?
Edible Excursions is a Bay Area walking food tour operator that runs guided multi-stop tasting experiences through neighborhoods in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland. Each tour visits several locally-owned eateries with a guide (Epicurean Concierge), combines cultural/historical narration with food tastings, and is offered as a fixed public route or as a fully customized private/group itinerary. Additional offerings include gift cards, corporate/private team-building tours, and add-on cooking and cocktail classes.
Is Edible Excursions a public or private company?
Edible Excursions is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Edible Excursions founded?
Edible Excursions was founded in 2004. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Edible Excursions based?
Edible Excursions is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Edible Excursions make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Public Tour Tickets are the primary driver. The others are private/Custom Tours, gift Cards and cooking & Cocktail Classes.
Who are Edible Excursions's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Secret Food Tours, Avital Tours, Turia (formerly Crave Food Tours), Food Tour Corporation (A Chef's Tour), Delicious Experiences, Walking Food Tours and Local Tastes of the City (San Francisco Food Tours). Broad incumbents are Withlocals, Viator (Tripadvisor) and Airbnb Experiences.
Does Edible Excursions have an API?
No public API is recorded for Edible Excursions.
What industry is Edible Excursions in?
Edible Excursions's product category is Culinary Tourism. Its primary akta.pro industry code is THAJAAAG, Food, Market & Culinary Culture Tours, with a secondary code of THAJAGAA, Culinary Walking & Market Tours. Its NAICS code is 561520 and its SIC code is 7990.