When I first mentioned to my 14 year old daughter that we should do this during our half-term trip to NY, I was met with the usual adolescent drain of enthusiasm and the declaration that it was an unnecessary distraction that would eat into her obligatory daily shopping schedule. But I managed to get her to look at the website and see what was involved. Suddenly the enthusiasm levels shot up with the mention of bagels, pizza, doughnuts and cup-cakes to the point where curiosity replaced reluctance. By the end of the tour, she was a total convert, singing the praises of the tour and wanting to wrap up Bridget the tour leader and take her home to the UK with us.
A major benefit of the tour is that it took us to Greenwich Village and showed us interesting nooks and crannies which we would almost certainly have missed if we had gone under our own steam, if we had even got there is the first place. Bridget, as tour leader, was enthusiastic and well-researched, a raconteur who inter-acted easily with the tour members and was interested in our own experiences at home and how it compared. Coming from the area originally she had a load of interesting stories and historical insights into the area. It was interesting to understand how the area had developed with the influx of different waves of people populating NY and the food that reflected those changes.
Overall the food locations were well considered, represented an interesting range and provided food of a good quality. We all had our different favourites, mine being the excellent pizza from a small family run Italian corner store which knocked out what was for me the perfect Margharitta pizza - perfectly cooked and with just the right amount of oregano and topping. For the others it was the doughnuts and the cup-cakes.
The tour became a regular topic of conversation over the dinner table throughout the rest of the visit, with us all reflecting on our personal highlights from the food to the various sights and sites we were taken to in Greenwich. We were helped by a beautiful autumn day in NY but it all added up to a trip that would stick in the memory for a long time.