Took the tour today with my mother. We got there early and had a nice breakfast at the meeting spot. Laurie arrived exactly when she said she would and assembled our group of 22 people for a food tour of Brooklyn which was way more than just sampling food. Laurie shard stories about Brooklyn along the way that kept the riding bits very entertaining. I don’t want to speak poorly of the food but this unexpected (maybe I was naive) history lesson interspersed with fun local trivia was the highlight of the trip for me.
But we’re here for the food, right.
Maybe we shouldn’t have had breakfast before hand. The food is an eclectic mix of different cultures. This is a tour which samples a bit of this and a bit of that from all sorts of cuisines. The single meatball at the first stop was my favorite. How good can a meatball be? Well, go to the Meatball Shop and try it out. Next we had falafel. I’ve enjoyed falafel before @ even when it was fairly dry crunchy hockey pucks. This was something different. Fresh from the fryer they were crispy on the outside and nearly creamy inside. My mother and I agreed it was among the best we have ever had (we have both travelled in the Middle East). Next was nearly a full meal of a pierogi, piece of kielbasa and some marinated salads (beet, red cabbage and carrot) followed by a warm apple fritter/pancake at a polish restaurant with a prominent chef and an unpronounceable polish name.
At this point I was pretty full. The drive to the next spot fortunately took a few minutes which Laurie filled with descriptions of what we were passing and what it meant to the growth of Brooklyn. We then had pizza, my mother’s favorite stop. We split a sampler flight of beer with it (at Laurie’s recommendation though not included in the price of the tour) which went perfectly.
Completely stuffed now!
Finished off with two more stops - a cannoli and a chocolate bon-bon. Final location had great views of Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. Some elected to walk the bridge but we took the ride back to the original meeting place.
Overall we had a great day. Laurie brought great energy, learned everyone’s name and made a point of engaging everyone. The bus was clean, very comfortable (cushy leather seats) and very safely driven. A bottle of water was provided for each person.
Well organized and very enjoyable tour. I would recommend to friends and family.