NY Fridays (Food Tour)

I am so lucky to have great friends and family who were so excited for my marriage and made the celebration of my then upcoming wedding so special.  Since our wedding was in October, I knew it would be tough to get everyone together for pre-wedding festivities (Bridal Shower, Bachelorette Party etc.) which would take place in the summer, due to vacations and the abundance of summer activities. Since a few of my close friends are unavailable for the weekend of my bachelorette party, they planned an amazing day out in Manhattan to make up for it!

The day started in Soho with a "Downtown Chocolate, Dessert and Wine Tour" with City Food Tours.  It was a really nice walk with some knowledgeable, friendly and funny tour guides. Between the stops the guides were full of neighborhood history. There was also another Bachelorette Party group on the tour with us.  The below is a summary of the spots we hit up on the tour:

Food tour spots (Photo Credit: A. Katz)

• Kee's Chocolate - where we got a chocolate truffle
• Xocolatti - where we sampled some unusual chocolates with chili 
• Le Palaid des Thes - at this tea shop, we heard about the history of tea, had plenty of samples in the store and came out with some tea samples to take home
• Papabubble - this Australian candy shop makes all their own unique candies right in the shop - of course, again lots of samples
• Oro Bakery - at this French bakery we got one of the best brownies I ever had.
• Di Palo Fine Foods - At this stop the guides picked up some delicious cheese from this Italian cheese and meet shop for us to eat with wine at our final stop.
• Puro Wine - a Chilean wine store where we enjoyed plenty cheese, bread and wine

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After the wine tour we all went to get manicures for some spa relaxation at Spa Belles.  I guess the other girls were feeling blue, the color that is, but my nails are in hot pink in the picture on the left.

With nails and the weather  dried up, we took a stroll over to the Lower East side and had a delicious dinner at Stanton Social (a favorite of our group for special occasions).

It was a Shariously great day and I can't thank all the lovely ladies who organized it enough!