There is so damn much food in NYC, I feel that no trip is complete without a proper food tour. On my last trip, I took an awesome food tour of the Lower East Side with The Enthusiastic Gourmet. This time, I wanted to cover a new neighborhood, so I went with the Foods of NY Tours Greenwich Village tour. The Village, as the locals call it, was the birthplace of the Beat Movement and tons-o-hippies back in the day. Thanks to gentrification, the place is just as cool as it was back then, with only twenty times the rent cost. And the food is still freaking delicious. Our tour guide Cindy was quirky with just a touch of sass, and it worked well for the tour. Compared to the previous tour I had taken, this one had a good amount of historical/cultural information sprinkled throughout and some delicious stops. We started off at Joe’s Pizza for a slice of NY’s finest from a gas-burning oven.
This is kind of pizza you eat fresh out of the oven, and you gotta blow on it or risk third degree burns on the roof of your mouth. But just for the record? It is TOTALLY worth the burns. Our next stop was Murray’s Cheese Shop, a massive place with every kind of cured meat and cheese you can think of.
They even have two cheese caves built underground to mimic aging cheese like the Europeans do.
We tried three of Murray’s cheeses: a sheep’s milk gouda, a 2 year aged Parmesan, and their drunken goat cheese, which has a texture similar to a young cheddar, but it is soaked in red wine before aging.
I know it is JUST a cheese straw, but Murray’s makes a damn fine version packed full of tangy aged Parmesan cheese and flaky puff pastry.
For our next stop, we headed down a tiny side street off of Bleeker, Cornelia Avenue. First stop was Palma, a French-Italian restaurant with an adorable courtyard and coach house attached to the back.
We tried their famous fried artichoke chips and got to see their beautiful catering kitchen. If you dig artichokes, you really need to try this stuff.
Next to Palma restaurant was another great place, Little Havana. This is a family-run Cuban restaurant, and we had the pleasure of meeting the adorable owner, who clearly loved cooking and Cuban food. We tried tasty choripan, which was bread with mustard, shredded beef and Spanish chorizo, and we finished it off with slices of fresh orange.
We wandered across the street to Aphrodisia Herb and Spice Shop, where we pet a cat wearing a pearl necklace and sniffed to our hearts content. We also tried a chocolate covered almond bit that was really tasty.
At this point in the tour, we had seen no less than two cats just chillin’ at various stores, one that was extremely overweight (which I love). A montage of kittehs I pet or tried to pet, if you will.
Our next stop was Centro Vinoteca, an Italian restaurant and wine bar that just so happens to have Leah Cohen of Top Chef Season Five as their chef de cuisine. Here we tried a watermelon salad with balsamic, micro greens and a cheese of some sort (maybe riccota salata?).
It was the only dish on the entire tour my whole group did not like, let alone finish. Thankfully, after a bit of historical sight-seeing, the tour redeemed itself by taking us to Milk and Cookies Bakery, a shop where you can pick out your own mix-in flavors and have them fresh bake your customized cookie. We opted for the traditional chocolate chip, which was cut with a bit of oatmeal for the sweetness.
We then headed to another pizza shop, Bleeker Street Pizza, which presents a chunkier slice with more sauce. It was tasty, but Joe’s had my heart!
This slice had a thicker crust, deliciously caramelized cheese, and a thick sauce that I loved. It was a great slice, especially if you like a thicker crust.
Finally, we ended with a bit of dessert from Rocco’s Pastry Shop, which specializes in Southern Italian Pastries. The shop was too full on a Saturday afternoon for our entire to go in, so we dine outside on delicious cannolis. Apparently, they don’t fill their cannoli shells until after you order it, so it remains perfectly crispy.
And that was the end of a food-filled, three hour food and cultural tour of Greenwich Village. It was delicious, it was informative, and damn it, it had cats, so you know it was fun! At $46 per person, which includes all samples and a water bottles, along with a three hour tour, this tour is totally worth your time and cash. ~LTG! ********************************** Food Tour Places I Dig: The Enthusiastic Gourmet http://www.enthusiasticgourmet.com/ Foods of NY Tours http://www.foodsofny.com Places We Ate at in The Village: Joe’s Pizza 7 Carmine (between 6th Ave. and Bleecker St.) NYC, NY 10014 (212) 366-1182 http://www.joespizza.com/ $2.50 USD a slice of pizza Murray’s Cheese Shop 254 Bleecker St. (between 6 & 7th Ave.) NYC, NY 10014 (212) 243-3289 http://www.murrayscheese.com/ Palma (Rustic Italian-French restaurant) 28 Cornelia NYC, NY 10014 (212) 691-2223 http://www.palmanyc.com/ Little Havana 30 Cornelia St. NYC, NY 10014 (212) 255-2212 http://www.littlehavananyc.com/ Aphrodisia Herb and Spice Shop 264 Bleecker St. NYC, NY 10014 (212)989-6440 http://www.aphrodisiaherbshoppe.com/ Centro Vinoteca (Italian restaurant & wine bar) 74 Seventh Avenue (between Barrow & Bleecker St.) NYC, NY 10014 (212) 367-7470 Milk and Cookies Bakery 19 Commerce St. (@ 7th Ave.) NYC, NY 10014 (212)243-1640 http://www.milkandcookiesbakery.com/ Bleeker Street Pizzza 69 7th Ave. South (@ Bleeker St.) NYC, NY 10014 (212)924-4466 http://bleeckerstreetpizza.com/ Rocco’s Pastry 243 Bleeker St. NYC, NY 10014 (212)242-6031 http://www.roccospastry.com/
