Taste of Philly Food Tour

About the Tourgivers

Carolyn Wyman

Taste of Philly tour owner Carolyn Wyman is the author of "The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book," the definitive guide to this Philly food favorite published by Running Press in July 2009, as well as "Better Than Homemade: Amazing Foods That Changed the Way We Eat" (Quirk Books), "Spam: A Biography" and "Jell-O: A Biography" (both Harcourt). Her food history reporting and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times, and featured on public radio’s "Morning Edition" and "Marketplace," "Rosie O’Donnell," the Food Network, and the History and Discovery channels. She is also an editor and contributing writer for Philadelphia's alternative weekly City Paper. Learn more at CarolynWyman.com.

Jim Feeney

Jim Feeney is a retired college administrator and a train and diner buff who also leads architectural and transportation tours for the Philadelphia Landmarks group. He recently completed a five-year-long quest to eat breakfast and lunch at all the surviving Philadelphia diners in Brian Butko and Kevin Patrick’s definitive "Diners of Pennsylvania." Jim grew up in the Philly suburb of Wyndmoor, and now lives in South Philadelphia.

Gail Kennedy

Gail Kennedy remembers when Market lunches cost $1 and the trains rumbled overhead. She is a retired Verizon employee who now runs her own vintage/recycled clothing shopping service. She lives in Center City Philly and is our tour guide team’s leading expert on attending local cultural events on the cheap.

Maria Moeller

Maria Moeller is an actress and director and the author of "My North Philly: Neighborhoods, Murals, Stories," an oral history of some of the city’s famous murals. She has taught theater in Philly public schools and coordinated educational programs for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. She grew up in the Philly suburb of Glenside but now lives in Philadelphia. When she isn’t traveling (and she does a lot), she enjoys such ethnic eateries as Dim Sum Garden (especially their soup dumplings) and Q.T. Sandwiches (she’s a fan of their lemongrass chicken Vietnamese hoagie), both located near the Market, and Nanee’s Kitchen, a Pakistani/Indian stand in it.

Photos by Mara Lavitt (top), C. Wyman
(middle two) and J.J. Tiziou (bottom).