White Moustache tours combine Seattle food and bands
Sep 5, 2012, 10:19 AM | Updated: Oct 11, 2024, 11:30 am
 White Moustache Adventure Company caters to tourists and locals alike, never visiting the same restaurant twice. They book local bands to come along and play music on their tours around Seattle. (Photo: White Moustache) |
By Jillian Raftery
White Moustache is a Seattle food tour company that combines really delicious dishes with really delicious bands.
Bryce Lathrop, founder of White Moustache Urban Adventure Company, says the name was inspired by a local phenomenon he thinks captures the essence of the Seattle food scene.
“It’s the foam on your lip when you’re drinking a latte,” says Bryce.
Bryce heads up a food tour he calls Musical Plates, which takes guests around to different Seattle-area restaurants. What makes White Moustache different from other tour companies is that they ask local bands to tell them their favorite restaurants and then have the bands join the tour in a 40-person bus, playing an acoustic set from restaurant to restaurant.
“The last band was The Local Strangers,” says Bryce, “and half the band were vegetarian, so we had things like potato dumplings and we would get them salads while the rest of us ate brats because there was a couple of bands that that was their favorite sandwich.”
Tours are typically held on Sunday afternoons, making one stop for each guest band mate at a different restaurant for a specific dish. The events cost $200 for two guests, which is all-inclusive, and usually lasts about two hours. Some tours can go up to six hours long.
During The Local Strangers tour, the group started at Dot’s Delicatessen for their bratwurst sandwiches, then continued on to Marination Station, where the Local Strangers played out on the patio. The tour finished up with Tin Table for salmon and pommes frites, and ice cream for dessert at Molly Moon’s.
In the past, White Moustache has played host to local bands like Goldfinch, Pretty Broken Things, and Aaron Austin. Their latest booking is Kris Orlowski, who will host Musical Plates on September 16th.
Bryce thinks Seattle is perfect for this kind of touring because there are so many different food options spread out through Seattle neighborhoods. This lends itself to a great tour for tourists and locals alike.
“In Seattle, I think there’s 120 different neighborhoods and they all have their distinct area,” says Bryce.
Bryce never stops at the same restaurant twice. He also has three rules any given restaurant must satisfy for him to stop there on a tour.
“The people who own it, or the chef – their story has to be so weird or unique you can taste it in the food we’re eating. Second one is that the food is unique to Seattle, you couldn’t find it anywhere else in the world. And then the last one is that you could easily convince the most obnoxious human in your life that what you just ate was the best possible version of that food,” says Bryce.
The tour is also unique since, on a big tour bus, guests will mix together and there is the chance to meet the band and new people from around the area.
“Everyone’s pretty good friends by the end. Half the sales are always repeats, so people have already been on two or three or four of these musical plates,” says Bryce.
Listen to Rachel’s full conversation with White Moustache founder Bryce Lathrop:
