About Bienville Bites Food Tour

We believe Mobile, Alabama is one of the most delicious, storied, and underrated cities in America. Our whole reason for existing is to prove it to you, one bite at a time.

Bienville Bites Food Tour is a walking food and history tour through historic downtown Mobile. Over a few hours and several locally owned restaurants, we serve up the signature dishes of the Gulf Coast alongside 300 years of the stories, characters, and history that made this city what it is. It is part meal, part history lesson, and part love letter to our hometown.

Meet Chris Andrews

Founder, Guide, and Author

Chris Andrews is the founder of Bienville Bites Food Tour and the author of A Culinary History of Mobile (The History Press, 2023). A Mobile native with a deep love of history and food, he has spent years digging into the stories behind the city’s dishes, its oldest restaurants, its Mardi Gras traditions, and the people who shaped its table. That research doesn’t just live in the book. It’s the backbone of every tour we run.

It started with a phone call. A friend of mine took a food tour in Savannah, Georgia, and could not stop talking about it. The second I heard the concept, something clicked. I knew we had to do this in Mobile. We have too many great restaurants, too much history, and a story that simply needs to be told. So I took the idea and ran with it.

Since then, we’ve partnered with dozens of local restaurants, and one of the things I’m proudest of is how the tour pours back into those businesses and our local economy. But the part that still gets me is the people. We’ve welcomed guests from all 50 states and more than 25 countries, all of them coming to Mobile and connecting with our city in a way they never would have otherwise. The thing we hear most often, over and over, is “we had no idea.” That right there is why we do this.

I started out as an amateur historian with nothing more than a deep local curiosity. Over the years I’ve honed that into a real craft, telling the stories of Mobile’s history and food through my book, through the tours, and along the way. And I’m not the only one. Our guides have raised the bar with stories and passions of their own, each of them bringing a piece of themselves to the experience. Getting to operate these tours, meet so many people, and connect with local business owners has been one of the great joys of my life.

What began as one walking tour through downtown Mobile has grown into a full calendar of experiences, evening tours, brunch tours, Mardi Gras celebrations, private and corporate events, and more. But the heart of it has never changed. We want you to leave knowing Mobile the way we do.

A Family Affair

Bienville Bites began in 2017 as a labor of love for Chris and his wife, Laney, who together combined their passions for food, history, and hospitality into Mobile’s first food tour. In 2020, they expanded across the bay with the launch of Taste of Fairhope, bringing the same spirit of connection through food to Fairhope, Alabama. What drives the whole thing is simple: a belief that the best memories happen around a table, and that sharing our corner of the world is one of the most rewarding things we can do.

Our Mission

Our goal is simple to say and big to chase: connect people to the city of Mobile by giving every guest a taste of its cuisine and history through an exceptional experience. The bigger dream behind it? To help make Mobile a world-renowned dining destination, and to bring as many people as we can to the table to discover why this city is so special.

Every tour, every story, every bite is a small step toward that. And every guest who leaves saying “I had no idea Mobile had all this” is a reason we keep going.

What a Tour Is Like

You’ll meet your guide at an easy downtown starting point and set off on foot. Along the way you’ll stop at several locally owned restaurants for signature tastings, walk past the landmarks and hidden corners that hold the city’s history, and hear the stories most visitors never get. We handle the reservations, the pacing, the dietary needs, and the logistics. You just show up hungry and curious. By the end, you won’t just have eaten well, you’ll understand Mobile.