New restaurants give city visitors a chance to escape boring chain restaurants and allow locals to escape the culinary rut of barbecuing old socks for dinner. Expand your culinary catalogue with today’s Groupon: for $30, you get your choice of walking or biking tour from Austin Eats Food Tours (up to a $69 value).

Spearheaded by passionate local Austinites, Austin Eats Food Tours cultivates culinary exploration and foodie curiosity by delving into unknown gems and showcasing 7 or 8 area restaurants in three-hour tours. The Saturday Downtown tour shepherds about 15 voracious eaters through Austin’s Farmer’s Market before diners sink into a hefty host of meaty treats, sampling succulent burgers and gourmet sausages plus fresh bakery treats. Two-wheeling mammals can divulge downtown Austin's restaurants and food trucks during the bicycle food tour, or meander down South Congress on the Sunday morning South Congress tour, nibbling on a smattering of eclectic eats from all corners of the country: venturing to New York for pizza, the Deep South for shrimp and grits, and New Mexico for niblets of edible turquoise. Vegetarians and pescatarians are encouraged to indulge in the South Congress tour to sample items from each stop and avoid the downtown Austin tradition of paving sidewalks with jerky.