Katya Vineyards Photo courtesy Karen Grimes
OCALA FOOD WALKS:
Taking A Culinary Tour By Rick Allen
Ocala Food Walks is a cool conciergelevel guide to all the best spots to eat downtown. That you don’t know where you’re going to go until you’re actually on your way there is just a bonus!
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he past two decades have seen a culinary explosion in downtown Ocala. Ocala Main Street recently produced a list of 28 eateries in and around the Downtown Square. Twenty years ago when I first began chronicling the area’s culinary landscape, there was maybe a third of that number. It wasn’t a memorable scene. Savvy Ocalans knew finer dining was beyond the square—College Road, east Silver Springs and such. But that was then. Today it’s possible to dine downtown every day for a month and not visit the same place twice. Moreover, many of the names on the Main Street list have opened in the past
OCALA’S GOOD LIFE retirement redefined
five years. There were more than a few I’d never heard of. But thanks to Karen Grimes, in just one afternoon I’m back in the know. How? By tagging along on one of her daily Ocala Food Walks. “It’s a great way to sample places to eat,” she says. “I guarantee you’ll be back.” The idea is simple. Over an afternoon, Grimes guides a tour group—usually limited to 10— from stop to stop like a museum docent. She spices the trek with tidbits of Ocala’s past. Then there’s this: “Here’s the best part,” she said at one stop. “You eat and I pay for it.”
