The Joys And Challenges Of A Culinary Tour Company

Kate McCabe offers small, curated trips to Ireland

Welcome to this week’s CulinaryWoman Newsletter! Before I get started, a thank you to everyone who took part in my reader survey last week.

Despite what the experts at Substack are telling us about single-subject posts, more than 70 percent of you asked me to keep the format of CulinaryWoman the same — a main story, followed by short takes and news on what I’m doing.

So, as our fourth anniversary approaches later this month, we’ll keep things as they are — and hopefully, you’ll find CW to be a must read every Sunday.

A Culinary Tour Business To Ireland

Have you ever been to Ireland? It’s been on my list for years, but since I’m not of Irish descent, I haven’t made it a priority.

However, Ireland is in Kate McCabe’s blood. Her father is Irish, which allows her to have dual citizenship, her family roots go back there for generations, and she’s spent ample time there traveling, studying and in the culinary world.

Kate lives on the outskirts of Ann Arbor with her husband, chef Max Sussman, who you read about recently in Food News, and their two children. Born in New Jersey, she met Max while she was a student at the University of Michigan.

For years, Kate pursued work in the social justice field, traveling regularly to Belfast and Derry in Northern Ireland. Max often accompanied her, and the pair met artisans and chefs from around Ireland. “That’s where the seeds of the business were planted,” Kate told me.

She felt there was a need for tours involving small groups of people who could meet with locals, see where work was being done, and enjoy experiences beyond the usual tourist sites. She began in 2019 with cultural exchange trips, and in 2020, co-founded Bog & Thunder, focused on food, craft and sustainability.

Covid triggers a pause

After conducting only two trips, the pandemic more or less shut down Ireland to international visitors. “It was bad for the travel industry, but it essentially gave us time to slow down and plan things more intentionally,” Kate says. Travel to Ireland was restricted for 20 months, one of the longest stretches in Europe.

Since things began opening back up in 2022, the company has set up eight tours, along with two trips for media, and has collaborated with Zingerman’s Food Tours on Irish tours. There is a flourishing market. “People are becoming more and more interested in culinary tours,” Kate says.

Her tours “have a fair mix of people that are Irish American, and then people who have absolutely no ancestral ties and are more just curious” about the Irish food scene. (The photos in this post are from her website.)

Bog & Thunder deliberately caps its trips at 12 people. “If the group is small enough, you actually get to interact with your local host or your guide, maybe even become friends with that person,” she says. “It’s just a much more intimate (experience). I think it's like we are trying to focus on experiences that feel more non-transactional.”

A salmon-focused tour

In August, Bog & Thunder is offering a unique trip in collaboration with fish smoker Sally Barnes, who runs Woodcock Smokery in West Cork. She's the only fish smoker left in Ireland who works exclusively with wild fish. Kate describes her as a “force of nature” who speaks regularly at Slow Food events, and supplies Michelin starred restaurants around Ireland.

The tour is meant to highlight the dwindling numbers of wild Irish Atlantic salmon and acts as a nod to the Salmon of Knowledge in Irish mythology (it’s a wild story, no pun intended, that you can read about here). It also includes a hands-on program working with Sally to cure and smoke wild salmon. 

The week long tour costs $6,500 and includes all ground transportation, lodging, food, and activities. If you’d like to know more about the wild salmon tour, details can be found on the tour company’s website.

Future plans

Along with scheduled tours, Bog & Thunder can build custom tours, offer private travel advice, and it has recently segued into holding writing retreats, another area that’s becoming popular in the culinary world.

Looking down the road, Kate says she and Max have talked about opening a bed and breakfast in Ireland with about 15 rooms, which they would use as a base for their tours.

Her tour company shies away from booking guests into big chain hotels, but many B&Bs don’t have space for a dozen people. “There’s definitely some gaps in the market there,” Kate says.

She believes Ireland is an ideal destimation for first-time international travelers, in part because of its well-deserved distinction as a welcoming place. “It's known for being green and lovely and also has a reputation for having really hospitable people, which I think is really true.”

Welcome Back To Calumet Fisheries

One of my favorite places to eat in Chicago is a small seafood shack on the far South side. Calumet Fisheries has been around since 1948, when brothers-in-law
Sid Kotlick and Len Toll decided to open a smokehouse.

Their families still own it, and they’ve gained a reputation for delectable fried food, smoked shrimp and all kinds of smoked fish. I’ve often made it a stop on trips to and from Chicago, to pick up a meal for the road, and buy fish to bring with me.

Cal Fish gained cinematic fame because it sits next to the bridge that Jack and Elwood cleared in The Blues Brothers. (Look out the driver’s side car window.) It also received a James Beard Award in 2010 as an American classic.

But on Nov. 21, Cal Fish caught fire, doing much more damage to the building than anybody realized at the time. The store closed and the interior had to be completely cleaned, outfitted with new equipment and the roof repaired.

On Saturday, Cal Fish re-opened, with a full menu and its legendary quirks. It’s still cash only, which caused some grumbling on its Facebook page, and smoked fish comes out at 1 pm, meaning you have to wait for it. There’s no delivery or even indoor seating. You can sit at a picnic table, eat in your car or take your food over to Calumet Park.

But it’s worth the effort. On a sunny day, there’s nothing more delicious than a spread of Cal Fish’s fried or smoked shrimp with a side of mild sauce. And maybe some fries.

Farewell to Rubio’s In Parts Of California

Speaking of seafood, fish taco lovers in California received a jolt last week. Rubio’s, which claims to have popularized the dish, closed 48 of its locations in the state, citing the “rising cost of doing business.”

The California legislature recently passed a law requiring that fast food workers receive wages of $20 an hour. It went into effect April 1, and analysts are predicting a number of operators will close in the face of higher costs.

“While painful, the store closures are a necessary step in our strategic long-term plan to position Rubio's for success for years to come,” the San Diego-based chain said.

Before the closures, Rubio’s had 134 stores in California, Arizona, and Nevada. It will keep some California locations open, but many are closing in San Diego, where it was founded, as well as Los Angeles.

I ate regularly at a Rubio’s in Phoenix which was on the way home from my pilates studio. It might not match up with sit-down restaurant fish tacos, but the fast casual menu was affordable and there were plentiful choices of salsas to go with the chips.

As a company, Rubio’s is big enough to fall under the WARN Act, which requires employers to give 60 days advance notice of a closure, or else pay employees two months worth of wages and benefits. If the experience of other restaurant shutdowns are a guide, they may have to sue to get their money. Let’s hope not.

Stanley Tucci Is Writing Yet Another Book

Fans of actor Stanley Tucci are eagerly awaiting his return to travel television. He’s scheduled to resume his visits to Italy on the National Geographic channel sometime in 2024.

Meanwhile, Stanley announced last week that he is writing another book. What I Ate In One Year will be released in the UK on Oct. 10, and in the U.S. on Oct. 15. He described it on Instagram as “a diary of food, family, friends, love, loss, and digestive issues. A year spent at many tables. Buon Appetito!”

You can place a pre-order here. I’m going to bet his TV show will roll out right around that time, which will give him a two-for-one reason to appear on British and American talk shows. (Should I try to interview him?)

Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman

To absolutely no surprise, Americans think tipping is getting out of hand, as I wrote last week for Food & Wine. Two studies — one from Intuit Bankrate and the other from Toast — measured current attitudes toward gratuities.

Tip screens are not making people more generous, the Bankrate study showed. The Toast study discussed the most generous and least generous states for tipping — Delaware and California, respectively.

Sending get well wishes to my culinary fairy godmother,

Dorie Greenspan

! She is on the mend after breaking her kneecap and bruising her wrists.

I would love to hear from you! Here’s how to reach me.

• Website: www.michelinemaynard.com

• Email: culinarywoman (@) gmail dot com

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• Etsy shop: City Tips Vintage

I’ll be back tomorrow with Red Beans & Advice for our paid subscribers. It’s strawberry season in Michigan, which goes by in the blink of an eye. I’ll be sharing my tips for prepping and storing them.

Have a wonderful Sunday, and thanks again for weighing in about CulinaryWoman. I’m glad to hear you like the format and I love bringing you the newsletter every week.

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