Daycation: NYC Food Tour

You guys. I went on an NYC food tour.

AND IT WAS THE GREATEST THING EVER!!!!

I know I said I wasn’t going to post anything new on the blog until February, but I had so much fun on my NYC food tour that I just had to write about it this week.

If you’re anything like me, you’re still pretty bummed that the holiday season is over and need a lil’ somethin-somethin’ to keep your spirits up.

Trust me when I say that “somethin-somethin'” should be a food tour. Our British houseguests actually booked this activity when they visited us over Christmas; they’ve done a few food tours in London, and, having raved about the experience, recommended it to us as something to do for our Daycation in New York City during their stay.

Now, we all know I’m not a fan of NYC. I go there everyday for work, so it’s a place I rarely associate with a good time. But, as an accommodating hostess, and although it did involve venturing into the city during my week off from work (ugggghhhh!!), I agreed to go on the NYC food tour. I also felt that, as a food blogger, I should broaden my horizons a bit about the culinary offerings of my nearby city. I figured it could be a good learning experience, if nothing else.

Well, lemme tell ya: it was all that and a bag of chips. Well, more like “all that and a cannoli,” because that’s how the food tour ended. With a(n amazing) cannoli. Be still, my little half-Italian heart.

But, I’ll get to that in a bit. First, I’m going to tell you all about the magical experience that was my Daycation NYC food tour. Get ready for a lot of info, a lot of food, and a lot of beautiful photos of NYC that I didn’t know could be found.

My friend booked our tour with Foods of NY Tours. This group offers various food tours in different parts of NYC, but we chose to do the three-hour Original Greenwich Village walking tour because it focuses on mom-and-pop Italian restaurants and shops proferring homemade Italian food. As a lover of carbs and pastries, I knew this food tour would be right up my alley.

We met up with our fantastic food tour guide, Robin, in front of Murray’s Cheese shop. She handed us a water bottle and a little brochure about Foods of NY Tours that contained short info about where we were going, as well as names of and coupons for other local businesses in the area.

Our food tour started promptly at 12:30, and our first stop was the famous Joe’s Pizza.

Robin, of course, went into some of the history about Joe’s — what makes the pizza so good, how the business first started, what celebs have eaten there, etc — but, honestly, the line out the door and around the corner of the pizzeria spoke for itself.

Clearly, this was the place to be, and I wondered how our 18-person tour group was ever going to make it inside the tiny store in order to taste a slice.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is where the magic of the food tour kicks in. Robin brought the pizza to us! She bravely bypassed all the hungry tourists queued up for god knows how long to fetch a freshly made pie and bring it out to us as we waited on the NYC street. We all received a half of a standard NYC pizza slice, and took our first taste of our NYC food tour.

If you’ll remember, I’m not a fan of mozzerella, which means I don’t enjoy traditional pizza. However, I had vowed at the start of the tour to taste a bit of everything. So, try Joe’s Pizza, I did.

It was delicious. Piping hot and a gooey, melty mess, with a slightly crispy crust that still retained a bit of chew. Incidentally, my favorite type of pizza crust. The tomato sauce was slightly sweet, which was a nice change from the cheaply acidic sauces I find on most pizzas, and the mozzerella tasted amazingly fresh. I gobbled down my slice and hungrily eyed up my husband’s. (Credit to him: he knows who he married; he downed his slice before I could even reach my hand out toward it.)

My little tasting group and I agreed that this NYC food tour was already off to a banner start.

After Joe’s Pizza, we toddled down the road to a nearby olive oil store, Olivier’s & Co, or O & Co for short. This olive oil comes from France, so what it’s doing on an Italian neighborhood food tour, I don’t really know. But, honestly, I didn’t care. This olive oil was so freakin’ good.

The shop itself is a tiny narrow space, filled with beautiful bottles and canisters of not only olive oil, but balsamic vinegars, spices, salts, gift baskets, and other culinary items that a gourmand might desire.

We were given three samples at O&Co: a slice of Italian bread brushed with basil olive oil, salt, and pepper; a snack cup of truffle oil popcorn; and a small taste test of a store-brand baslamic vs O&Co balsamic vinegar (Spoiler alert: the O&Co version won. Duh.)

While we were munching away on our olive oil treats, Robin shared a ton  of information with us about how to pick good olive oils and balsamic vinegars, as well as how to spot bad ones. She offered different examples of how to use the oils, vinegars, and spices, and the food blogger in me was itching to try all the ideas.

I learned so much at the O&Co stop, and even though there were delicious things fed to me all day, I think this part of the food tour was my favorite.

We then filed out of the little shop and moved down the street to check out Faicco’s, purveyor of meats, cheeses, pastas, sauces, and other Italian specialties.

Tight spaces seems to be a “thing” in this West Village neighbood, so we trooped into the store in groups of four to take a quick look at the goods on offer, and then Robin brought out slices of their sopresatta for us to taste.

I don’t enjoy cured meats, so after I gave my slice the required taste, I passed the rest to my husband, who happily accepted the offering. He really loved the sopresatta, particularly the peppercorn pieces that popped with flavor as you chewed.

We then did a quick walk down nearby Cornelia Street, a street full of different restaurants that all sounded delicious, and talked about the history of the neighborhood, the architecture, and the city itself.

We then went back over to Faicco’s, and Robin brought us out a tray of their signature arancini.

Arancini are rice balls traditionally made with leftover risotto, then rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried. They’re golden brown and crunchy on the outside, then delightfully gooey and soft on the inside.

Faicco’s signature recipe is a bit different from what I’m used to — they use a different rice and different cheese — but Husband and I agreed that it was fun to try another version of a favorite appetizer.

Happily, our walking food tour also included a few opportunities to sit down. The first one was at Trattoria Pesce Pasta, right next door to Faicco’s.

We were each able to grab a seat for a few minutes, refill our water bottles, use the bathroom, and then sample a rather large homemade Italian meatball smothered in sauce.

I was pretty impressed that we each got our own meatball to taste; Robin had been right when she said we would not go hungry on this food tour!

The meatball was soft and warm and full of flavor; it had obviously been packed with garlic then simmered in a pot of tomato sauce for hours.

Our British friends loved the meatball and claimed it’s one of the best they’ve ever had. Husband and I enjoyed it, but we were slightly less impressed since, well, no one can beat my sister-in-law’s meatballs. Not even a however-many-year-old-recipe from an authentic and famous Italian joint in NYC. (Hear that, sis? Your balls are the best! HA!)

The atmosphere at Trattoria was a total winner, though. Another small and cozy space, the restuarant fit about a dozen small tables and had delicious-sounding fish and pasta recipes posted on a blackboard above our heads. I can’t imagine a better place for a warm, delicious Italian meal on a cold, winter’s night. It reminded me of a local Italian joint I used to go to as a kid, and the sense of nostalgia made me yearn to return to Trattoria for dinner sometime.

From there, we walked around the corner to our second sit-down stop on the food tour.

Rafele Ristorante was another warm and inviting Italian restaurant, particularly since it was beautifully decorated for Christmas when we were there. There are also huge picture windows looking out on to the busy NYC streets, so you really get that “dining in NYC” feeling there.

At Rafele Ristorante, we were given about 20 minutes to sit down and relax, as well as order a drink (for an extra charge) if we chose.

Since I was on vacation, I decided to live it up and order a glass of Chianti, and this prompted our friends to also indulge in some day drinking. (note: I barely finished half my glass. I have no tolerance for alcohol).

As we sipped our drinks — feeling very classy and NYC-ish, I might add — we were served samples of Rafele’s eggplant rollatini and homemade foccacia bread.

Most of my little group doesn’t enjoy eggplant, so we were skeptical going into this particular tasting.

However, we all loved the eggplant rollatini. The squash was sliced incredibly thin, then sauteed to perfection. It was light, fresh, and crisp, and the perfect contrast to the rich and creamy buffalo ricotta filling, which I honestly could eat by the bowlful.

After Rafele, our food tour started to transition away from the savory and into the sweet. Our first dessert-ish stop was The Doughnut Project.

Living in a world where cookie-cutter doughnut bakeries abound, I loved the spin that TDP puts on their treats: all their doughnuts are inspired by food they’ve eaten. As someone who creates recipes inspired by books I’ve read, I immediately loved this hook and couldn’t wait to taste their doughnuts.

The Doughnut Project has some pretty interesting-sounding culinary compilations, but our food tour was given a reassuringly standard but still fun sample: Lemon Love Letter, which is a lemon yeast donut with lemon glaze, zest, and sea salt.

The doughnut itself was tender and fluffy, and the lemon topping had just the right amount of salty-sweet-bitter zing to it.

I ducked into the colorful,vibrant shop to look at the rest of their doughnuts and saw several more I would have loved to buy for at-home tastings. The array of colors, toppings, and types of treats was mouth-watering.

This next part of the food tour took us away from food for *gasp* 20 whole minutes, and Robin brought us to street after street of beautiful old NYC rowhouses, tenements, and Federal-style homes dating back to the 1800s.

More than one boasted historical plaques and unique touches that can’t be found in modern architecture. We learned about the history of the Village and who lived there  — lots of famous people — and what streets and houses were featured in popular movies and TV shows.

And, again, everything was still decorated for the holidays, so seeing these homes all trussed up with greenery and bows was truly a treat.

After a little while, we wandered back to where we began, at Murray’s Cheese, we we were able to sample three different Italian cheeses made from goat, sheep, and cow’s milk.

We also walked by HUGE refrigerators full of imported and domestic cheeses, and I had to physically restrain myself from trying every type of cheese in the shop.

Our tour ended at Rocco’s Italian Pastry Shop, where we were each given a sample cannoli. Rocco’s definitely makes one of the best cannoli I’ve ever had. The shell is light and crispy, without any hint of greasiness, and I loved that I could taste hints of orange, nutmeg, and vanilla in the freshly piped creamy cannoli filling.

I sadly didn’t get any photos of the cannoli because we literally grabbed and ran in order to make it to our next non-tour stop in the city. However, I ducked into Rocco’s before the tour to oggle their goods, and I was delighted with what I found. Rocco’s smelled like the Italian bakeries of my childhood, and it was almost enough to make me weep with nostalgic joy. The cases also contained pastries and cookies I haven’t seen since I was a little girl, and I vowed to come back to the shop sometime to spend all my money there.

As luck would have it, our food tour ran about 10-15 minutes late, and we had tickets for Top of the Rock that we had to dash off to, which meant we had to leave the West Village without being able to revisit any of the shops. *cries*

However, our Foods of NY Tours booklet that Robin gave us has coupons in it that NEVER expire, plus some extra discounts for tour group members, so I have no doubt that Husband and I will be back on Bleecker Street in the near future.

Our NYC food tour turned out to be a fantastic daycation activity. It’s great for locals and for visitors since you can try all different types of cuisines and food, and I love that you get some history thrown in there, too.

It also doesn’t hurt that it’s a walking tour. More exercise = more food, right?? RIGHT.

If you’re in the NYC area, I encourage you to look up what tours are offered from Foods of NY Tours. You will not be disappointed with your experience! ( Note: they haven’t sponsored this post in any way; this is just my honest recommendation.)

And, if you’re outside the NYC area, check out what food tours may be available in your closest major city, or even in your smaller cities. Food tours are such a great way to get to know neighborhoods that you might otherwise overlook.

There ya have it, Tartlets. I’m someone who hates NYC but absolutely adored my NYC food tour of the West Village. I came away from this adventure with a newfound interest in NYC history, lots of knowledge about West Village culture and restaurants, and, above all else, a happy stomach full of appetizers, savory bites, and desserts. This was my first food tour, but it certainly won’t be my last.

Have you been on any food tours? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!