Foods of New York Tours: Nolita and NoHo

Well it’s been over a month so I think this post is long overdue. Back in June I went up to New York with my BFF Kelly to do the Foods of New York Tour of Nolita and NoHo. I’ve written about these tours numerous times on my blog before, and like I’ve said time and time again I really can not speak highly enough about them.

Nolita and NoHo is Foods of New York Tours newest tour, and I was so excited to be one of the first people to try it out. You can check out my posts on their other tours here:

Chinatown
Chelsea Market and the Meat Packing District

Kelly was so nice to help me put this little video together from the tour. And thank you to Amy, the Director of Operations for Foods of NY Tours and our tour guide, for letting me interview her to find out more about the tours. We really had such a great time!

The tour started off at Little Cupcake Bakeshop where we tried a small decadent chocolate cupcake. Moist, semi-sweet chocolate cupcakes are the best way to start your day.

The Little Cupcake Bakeshop was extremely cute and definitely one of a kind. I love places that are original that serve up quality treats like this. The cupcakes were delicious as was the coffee.

After passing by the original Ray’s Pizzeria we landed at our second food spot, Emporio.

Although it looks like nothing on the outside this was one of the cutest, rustic, brick oven pizzeria’s I’ve ever been too. The restaurant also sells some of their ingredients that they use in their dishes.

As I was sitting there listening to Amy, or tour guide, talk about the ingredients the restaurant uses and why they use such high quality ingredients, everything hit me as to why I am in this industry, and I just felt so happy. I guess you could say it was a true “Aha!” moment. We watched as our pizza was made step by step. The ingredients were fresh, authentic, and incredibly simple.

The sun was shining in the restaurant brightly as the group sat around a large table and enjoyed this delicious thin crust pizza topped with arugula, prociutto, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, Parmesan, olive oil, salt and pepper.

As we took in the sights of the neighborhood as well as the architecture, we stopped at Oxley’s Carvery for some corned beef and roasted turkey with horseradish sauce and honey mustard.

Next stop was the cutest little restaurant called Bread. It was the perfect combination of chic, modern, old fashion, and trendy. I really liked the original decor inside and out.

We tasted their delicious shrimp salad panino (the real way to describe 1 sandwich). Fresh shrimp salad between 2 pieces of fresh grilled bread was.

On our way to our next stop we passed by some cute restaurants that I must come back and try. I loved the quaintness of these neighborhoods, and all the character the shops and restaurants possessed.

The next stop on the tour was easily one of my favorites. It was a restaurant that I absolutely fell in love with. At first I loved that it had the same name as one of my favorite bars in DC, Public, but after walking into the place I knew it was so much more than a bar and just my style.

The look of this restaurant was organic, open, and fresh. It reminded me a bit of Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore. We didn’t try any of the food, but after a look at the menu I knew this was a place I must try in the future. All the food looked original, and I wanted to plan my next birthday party here since it looked like a great place for a party.

We may not have had a chance to eat at this restaurant, but they gave us delicious chocolate truffles to take home.

We strolled on down the street taking in more sights and sounds of Nolita and NoHo learning about the different areas, and how the buildings have changed over time from meeting places to restaurants to shops, but I can’t give away all the details of the tour!

The next stop was Food Network Star, Aaron Sanchez’s restaurant. This was pretty exciting to me since I have been watching him since his very first appearance on The Next Iron Chef.

By now we all know that food trucks are the latest craze, but Aaron did something original and brought the food truck into his restaurant. Here we tried Horchata and the breakfast taco which was egg, chorizo, potato, and avocado in a corn tortilla. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Horchata, but thought the breakfast burrito was fantastic.

And if you don’t think we had enough food yet-the tour continues on. Luckily we walked a bit before our next food stop.

We ended up at another one of my favorite stops called The Smile. Again this restaurant was absolutely adorable. It was chic, feminine, yet very rustic and original. We were served little pieces of crusty bread with homemade Ricotta cheese topped with a fresh cherry tomato and drizzle of olive oil.

I can honestly say that I had never had fresh Ricotta cheese before, and there really is nothing like it. We had the chance to peak inside the restaurant as well.

We started the tour with dessert so it was only fitting that we end the tour with dessert. We ended up at yet another very chic, very feminie restaurant called Peels. The colors were clean; green, white, orange, yellow, and the feel was trendy and hip.

Here we had the chance to try Peels homemade Oreos. These don’t even compare to the original Oreo. The outside was crunchy yet dense and moist, and the cream filling was thick and creamy and just the right sweetness. I’d say we ended the tour on a very good note.

The restaurants that we tried on this particular tour were very much my style, and each one was better than the last. I came into this tour knowing absolutely nothing about this area on New York City, and I left with more knowledge than I knew what to do with. I thought each place was very well picked, and our tour guide did an incredible job keeping the tour interesting, fun, and energetic. I can’t wait to come back and do another one!!!

Tagged as: Aaron Sanchez, Bread, Emporio, Foods of NY Tours, Little Cupcake Bakeshop, Nolita and NoHo, NYC, Oxley's Carvery, Peels, Public, Tacombi, The Smile