My 13-hour drive was worth it, I decided, for the fried red snapper I ate in Pensacola. I was on my way from Oklahoma City to Orlando, and being in the driver’s seat allowed me to pull over and taste more of the Sunshine State, in a way I couldn’t have if I’d taken a flight.
Ever since I lived and traveled in an RV full-time during 2018 to 2020, and now that I live on Route 66, I’ve come to cherish taking the long way. And as a veteran food writer with a culinary degree, my detours usually revolve around my next meal.
Indeed, food-themed road trips are the best way to get a meaningful taste of a place. From the best of the Wild West to beer-battered walleye in the Midwest, here are six food-filled drives you can take in a weekend.
Boston to Portland, Maine: Revolutionary cannoli, chowder, and lobster rolls in New England
- States: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine
- Length: 108 miles
Start in Boston at Mike’s Pastry or Modern Pastry, two North End institutions that command lines by night, but are quieter in the morning (and yes, cannoli is an acceptable breakfast). Get your steps in on the Freedom Trail, but go modern with dinner at the Nautilus, a new-school seafood spot in Boston’s Seaport District, for charcoal prawns and red curry mussels. Cap the evening with another classic: Boston cream pie, or perhaps a Boston Cream Pie Martini, at the Omni Parker House hotel where it was invented.
Take coast-hugging U.S. Route 1 into New Hampshire for a waterfront lunch of chowder and bacon-wrapped scallops at Oar House in Portsmouth, then continue to Dunne’s Ice Cream in York for a scoop of Maine whoopie pie ice cream and on to Sweet Pea’s Ice Cream in Kennebunkport for blueberry pie ice cream. Finally, arrive in Portland for Maine oysters and brown butter lobster rolls at Eventide Oyster Co.
The next day, tap into America’s best bakery town, Portland, with a visit to Zu Bakery. Croissants, orange brioche rolls, and monkey bread are all on deck at this 2024 James Beard Award winner. End your trip with a bang with a tasting menu at Twelve, where local and seasonal fare ranges from monkfish schnitzel to swordfish with green crab bisque.
Denver to Cheyenne: Wild West flavors across Colorado and Wyoming
You might need cowboy boots to wrangle the flavors at Railspur.
Courtesy of Visit Cheyenne
- States: Colorado and Wyoming
- Length: 152 miles
Where the plains meet with Rockies, regional cuisine channels the best of the Wild West. Kick off your high plains adventure in Denver at Fox and the Hen, an art-filled breakfast spot with Pueblo chili toast with Olathe corn salsa. For dinner, get your corn nixtamalized at Xiquita, a plant-filled Mexican restaurant where housemade masa makes its way into everything from beef cheek sopes to duck confit tacos. And for a nightcap, visit maximalist B&B Urban Cowboy Denver for a cognac old-fashioned in the adjoining Carriage House.
Heading north into the Rocky Mountains toward Wyoming, make sure to stop along U.S. Route 36 in Estes Park for Purple Mountain Taffy or DIY chocolate bars at the Stanley Chocolate Factory. Follow U.S. Route 34 to a seasonally inspired lunch at Fort Collins’s Farmhouse at Jessup Farm (autumnal eats include pumpkin arancini and truffle-Parmesan brussels sprouts). Follow the meal with Caramel Apple Sangria, Colorado beer, and mocktails made with walnut bitters and Luxardo cherries at Sugar Beet Saloon.
Onward to Wyoming, Interstate 25 carves through rolling plains and shortgrass prairie to Cheyenne. Marked by downtown murals and eight-foot-tall cowboy boots, the state capital blends Wild West heritage with modern meals, like bison lettuce wraps at Railspur and fry bread sopapilla nachos at Paris West, followed by after-dinner wine flights or sake at Wagonhound Wine Co.
Portland to McMinnville, Oregon: James Beard breakfasts and Willamette wine
- State: Oregon
- Length: 48 miles
Foray into one of America’s most fertile regions in the Willamette Valley, where the eponymous river fuels Oregon’s fresh produce and thriving wine scene.
Begin at Portland’s Cafe Olli; the savory porridge and milk bun frittata sandwiches here helped earn Taylor Manning and Siobha Speirits a James Beard nod. Grab an ube latte at Less and More Coffee, then stop to smell the roses—more than 10,000 of them—at the International Rose Test Garden, before taking Oregon Route 99W into the wine-soaked Willamette Valley.
Trace the Dundee Hills Wine Loop for scenic winetastings at Casa Roco, with sweeping farmland views. Then make your way over to Remy Wines, an LGBTQ+-owned tasting room in a Dayton farmhouse.
Have dinner in McMinnville at Grounded Table, which sources ingredients from its own farm (think roasted halibut with cherry belle radish). You might finish with a nightcap and some late-night tots across the street at historic Blue Moon Lounge.
Minneapolis to Duluth and the North woods: Global eats and walleye tacos
Try Hmong treats at Diane’s Place and other immigrant foods throughout the Midwest.
Photo by Gemma Weston/Meet Minneapolis
- State: Minnesota
- Length: 317 miles
Minnesota is home to 10,000 lakes’ worth of fresh fish and a robust and resilient immigration population in Minneapolis. So a road trip here merits extra time to revel in its culinary diversity.
Have brunch at Minneapolis’s Diane’s Place, a Hmong restaurant serving coconut-pandan croissants and red curry crab omelette. Visit the East Lake Street cultural district to see the Somali Museum and stock up on snacks—like chicken sambusas and chorizo tortas—at Midtown Global Market. Cultures and cuisines converge at the Market at Malcolm Yards, a globe-trotting food hall with dishes from Argentina, Korea, Mexico, Thailand, and more.
Take forested I-35 to Duluth, where a wide-open vista of Lake Superior greets you in all its oceanic-seeming glory. At Sara’s Table Chester Creek Cafe is an appealing place to drink in the view while drinking a kombucha float (yes, with ice cream) and snacking on wild rice muesli. Explore Canal Park and keep the lake views going with patio beers at solar-powered Canal Park Brewing Company. Before hitting the road, take a cold plunge at Cedar and Stone, a wood-fired floating sauna stocked with fizzy, Nordic-inspired Sauna Water.
Venture into the pine forests and lakes of the North woods via U.S.-53 N, and end at Cantilever Distillery (a distillery and hotel in Rainier) for lavender-smoked old-fashioneds and beer-battered walleye tacos.
Related: This Midwestern Metropolis Is One of the Most Diverse Places in the Country
Nebraska City to Omaha: Steaks, burgers, and ranch-to-table eats
- State: Nebraska
- Length: 206 miles
Buckle up for a beefy ride. Start in Nebraska City at Timbers for steak frites made from breakfast potatoes and chicken-fried Nebraska sirloin. But save your appetite for Odyssey in Hastings. Accessible via rolling hills along U.S.-6, the restaurant’s Popper burger beckons with bacon, cream cheese, fire-roasted jalapeño jam, and dry-aged Nebraska beef.
Head east on I-80 to Lincoln for an or dinner at Casa Bovina, serving steaks made from Piedmontese cattle raised in Nebraska, followed by a whiskey-soaked digestif at Alchemy. Housed in the original Lincoln Drug Company building from the late-1800s, the moody timber-clad bar serves flights and pours from its list of 100-plus whiskies.
The next day, continue northwest on I-80 to Omaha, and fuel up for the day at Early Bird. The popular brunch spot offers gravy-draped breakfast enchiladas, bacon flights, and hash brown croquettes with smoked gouda and queso. Save your beef for dinner, and a meaty Nebraska take on sushi: Ota serves “prairie tuna,” which is what chef David Utterback calls his blow-torched wagyu beef nigiri.
If, miraculously, you’re still hungry, try the reuben at the Orleans Room, which originated at Nebraska’s present-day Cottonwood Hotel. Find it on the late-night menu, along with Omaha-invented, toffee-studded butter brickle ice cream.
Florida’s 30A to Pensacola: Doughnut trails, Gulf seafood, and the Flora-Bama
- State: Florida
- Length: 80 miles
Route 30A, which beach-hops through postcard-ready towns on Florida’s Gulf Coast, is scenic, sweet, and savory.
Along the panhandle, the South Walnut Donut Trail includes key lime pie doughnuts at Dough Sea Dough and Samoa doughnuts at Seaside’s Amavida Donuts. While in Seaside, hit the Daytrader Tiki Bar & Restaurant for Spam musubi and tiki drinks, including nonalcoholic cocktails for designated drivers that use ingredients like butterfly pea flower and dehydrated lemon.
Westward on coastal 30A, break for a hike in Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, where longleaf pines flank coastal dune lakes, then refuel with Angus beef brisket and green chili creamed corn at nearby Evie Mae’s Pit BBQ.
Take U.S. Route 98 to Pensacola, where globally inspired Pearl & Horn pairs fried red snapper collar with Georgian adjika sauce, as well as broiled oysters with black garlic miso. Finish with sunset at Flora-Bama Bar, an iconic beachfront bar straddling the Florida-Alabama border, known for its boozy, milkshake-like Bushwacker.
Related: Not Miami, Not Orlando—This Is the Florida to Visit Right Now
