We believe in supporting small, local business that makes NYC unique.

With food and beverage themed tours we focus on the small, local (and usually hole-in-the-wall) spots that you never would've noticed on your own.  Our local guides will introduce you to local shop owners, bakers, brewers, and more as we show you the places where we like to hang out.  Big bus tours might cover a lot of ground, but you're missing so much in between!  New York City is a walking city, the best way to experience it is wandering around it's many diverse neighborhoods, and with small groups, you'll feel more like you're hanging out with friends rather than a big tour being herded around.  Already live in NYC?  Take a tour & learn about a new neighborhood, or find amazing drinking spots near your place that you never knew existed.  Or impress your friends with amazing brunch spots, or super cheap dumplings in Chinatown (trust us, we know some cool spots).

We believe that local travel should truly benefit the local community.  Too often when people travel they stick to things that are comfortable, like chain restaurants or shops that they recognize.  That's why we promote all small businesses that support other local businesses and suppliers.

Whether you're a foodie, a craft beer fan, history buff, or just really love hanging out in NYC, we've got the tour for you.
Check out our full list of walking tours, or keep reading to meet our awesome tour guides.
Meet Our Guides:
Guide Profiles
We followed our guides around their favorite neighborhoods to see where they like to eat, drink & hang out.  Learn more about our guides & see some spots that are definitely not going to be in your guidebook.
Urban Oyster food tour
(WeWork/Lauren Kallen)
David Naczycz, Founder
David is a dedicated urbanist and amateur historian who loves cities and their histories. He has traveled to and lived in a number of cities all over the world and, everywhere he goes, he immerses himself in the history of that place. A resident of New York City for over ten years, David has a special interest in the world's greatest city and its history.  One of his favorite activities when he's not leading a tour of the city is to explore greater New York by bike and his mission is to have cycled through every neighborhood in the city.  He's also an entrepreneur who values sustainability, urban neighborhoods, and the people that live there.  He has built a consulting practice working with the leaders of cities to help them create viable communities and while living in Detroit he founded Detroit Synergy, a grassroots non-profit that empowers every day citizens to get involved in improving their city.  Now, through Urban Oyster, David has found a way to combine all the things that he loves: cities, history, sustainability, and food and he can't wait to share it with you.
Alex
Alex is an American army brat who grew up in Germany.  And European drinking ages being what they are, he developed a love for beer at an early age.  Here in the US he became an actor, and had the good fortune of being on tour in the late nineties just as the Craftbrew movement was taking off.  He moved to New York about fifteen years ago, and working as a bartender between acting gigs, he was immersed in the culture of food and drink that is such a great part of this city’s history. 

Why He Loves Being a Tour Guide: It combines 3 things he loves; history, beer, and performance.
Favorite Slice.  Wheated in Ditmars Park, Brooklyn.
Special Skills. Plays the african thumb piano & makes a really good Glühwein (German mulled wine).
Brian
Brian is a trained actor (and waiter by default) who in the 10 years he's lived in New York has developed a passion for the city, its culture, and its food. There's nothing he loves more than walking through the streets as the neighborhoods, people, and architecture change.   In addition to giving tours, Brian has a food blog (Eat This NY) and web series where he searches for the most authentic and delicious food adventures in the city. 

Why He Loves Being a Tour Guide: He loves meeting people from all over the world and getting to see New York through fresh eyes.  It's always exciting to share their discoveries.
Special Skills:  He can clap with one hand.  You sort of have to see it to believe it...
What He Does on Days Off: He's constantly on the search for iconic NY food & drink experiences.  Giving the walking tours is the only way he keeps from weighing 500lbs.
Nathalie
Nathalie fell heads over heels in love with NYC upon her arrival 14 years ago.  Her first 3 months living in the city she stayed at the legendary Chelsea Hotel and like a true New Yorker she has lived in and explored many different neighborhoods and boroughs since. Tasting local foods is a huge aspect of traveling for Nathalie -you learn so much of a culture through its cuisine!  Her passion for travelling, exploring and learning have taken her all over the world both as an individual traveler and group tour leader. During the past couple of years she has been taking small groups of various nationalities through North America, delivering informative and fun experiences.

Why She Loves Being a Tour Guide:  She sharing her favorite city with people from around the world, connecting with local businesses, and learning new interesting things everyday!
Why NYC Is So Great: The people in it- creative and from all over the world.  Everything goes, no one judges you.  Tons of culture, she especially loves modern dance performances, and great ethnic food.
Favorite Slice:  Juliana's in Brooklyn
Nikki
As a 4th generation New Yorker, Nikki feels a great responsibility to dispel the "grumpy & jaded New Yorker" reputation by sharing the incredible, fun & friendly city she's always loved (unless you catch her, for some reason, anywhere near Rockefeller Center during Christmas time...).  Living in Queens, she's incredibly grateful for the insane variety of food just steps from her apartment from Australian to Czechoslovakian to Greek to Venezuelen (seriously, all within two blocks) and will try anything once.  Nikki loves reading memoirs and history accounts to find new stories about the experiences of the people that have made up the greatest city in the world.

Special Skills:  Can eat almost any meal with chopsticks.
What She Does on Her Days Off: Loves to take her dog to the park to play with all of the other local dogs.
Why NYC Is So Great:  It's just so incredibly diverse.  You can be anybody with any random hobby or interest and there will be other people just like you.  Everyone's super unique, but at the same time, everyone's a New Yorker.
Laura
In her past lives Laura has been a page at a public library, a sports reporter and an editor at non-profit teen newspaper. She couldn't be happier to reinvent herself in New York as a tour guide, especially one that celebrates craft beer. She started drinking beer at the appropriate age of 21 and became a homebrewer while living in Los Angeles. A morning person, Laura strongly believes in breakfast beer and is convinced that if you think you don't like beer, you simply haven't had the right one yet. Laura studied journalism in college and got a master's degree in American Studies doing research on women's boxing. Living without a television, she is on a quest to find a bar that shows tennis at 8 a.m. and serves good beer.
Allison
Always game to sample a local specialty, Allison’s passions for travel, writing and discovering the taste of a place have steered her around the globe and then some.  These edible quests have found her gnawing happily on a hacked off stick of sugarcane in a Kenyan outdoor market, crunching on crispy chickpea fritters at a lively Palermo intersection and observing tofu being made in a dimly-lit Kyoto alley kitchen.  With a career that spans work with the International Slow Food Movement, a degree from the Italian University of Gastronomic Sciences and various published magazine articles, she is thrilled to guide visitors through the global deliciousness of Manhattan’s midtown lunch possibilities. 
Josh
After years of roving the country’s small towns as a journalist and minor league baseball play-by-play broadcaster, Josh realized his next move had to be a return to New York City.  An avid traveler and fiercely loyal New York sports fan, Josh relocated from the Connecticut suburbs to Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens neighborhood and immediately became captivated with eating and drinking (especially hoppy beers) his way through the borough.  In addition to leading tours, Josh also writes for Fodor’s Travel covering both New York City and New England.

Favorite Slice: Best Pizza in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Favorite Bar: Black Tree on the Lower East Side
Why He Loves Being a Tour Guide:  He loves showing both visitors and native New Yorkers areas of the city they have never seen before.  Walking along the city's neighborhood streets is the only way to truly experience New York.
Joe
After years of being the “overly-expressive-really-into-history-OOHH-AAHHH-guy” on any tour he went on, Joe decided he would love to be the one leading the tours. A Maryland native and Seton Hall University alum, Joe has been a New York resident for five years.  With years of experience in the culinary industry, he’s served at an upscale Chinese Dim Sum restaurant in NOHO, a rustic Italian farm-to-table restaurant in Meatpacking, and an authentic Costa Rican joint in Chicago. If he hasn't served it, he’s eaten it. Apart from the food service industry, Joe works as an actor and voiceover guy, and regularly performs in NYC at the People’s Improv Theater.   
Anna
Born and raised in New York, Anna has spent most of her life learning about food, cooking, and being inspired by traditions. Whether it was learning to cook her grandmother's traditional Thanksgiving dinner or reading about cheese in a book written in French (note: she does not speak French), Anna knew food would influence her career. She also loves traveling and believes that no trip is worth it without a great meal on the other end, whether it is across an ocean or across the street. After graduating college in Central New York she attended culinary school in manhattan. She spent years working in the hospitality industry both in kitchens and in dining rooms cultivating her love of artisan products. Her favorite thing to do is eat her way around new cities all over the world.

Special Skills:   Fitting things into small spaces (general spacial awareness) and playing 6 degrees of kevin bacon.
Why NYC Is So Great: There is always something new to do, smell or taste.  This place never gets old!
Favorite Slice:  Sal & Carmines
The #ShopSmall Effect
  • Purchasing a tour supports us, a small, local NYC business, which employs local New Yorkers.
  • On our tours, we bring customers to small, local NYC shops, restaurants, and bars(many of which buy produce and supplies from other NYC businesses) directly supporting them.
  • By supporting local, you're contributing trifold to the local neighborhoods instead of extracting from the city by frequenting chains.