East Village Foodie Tour

We all slept in the next morning, and after a very slow start, we headed out on our self-guided food tour of the East Village. But first, Blake earned $2 yesterday. I kept him busy watching for dogs so he wouldn’t mind walking so much. He got $1 for every 50 dogs he saw. So first thing in the morning he bought a Coke. But it had a lid that required a bottle opener. We had the darndest time trying to get it off. We gave up and had to ask for a bottle opener at Veniros. Here are our stops:

Veniro’s 3 stars. Pretty good, and probably great if you like super traditional Italian bakery style. It’s not quite my taste but I can tell it was well made. Prices varied by dessert. We spent $15ish

Tompkin Square Bagels. 5 stars and then some. Bagels are made fresh on site. They were big, chewy on the outside, soft on the inside. Everyone loved them. $3.50 for a bagel with cream cheese. We liked these so much that Rusty and I came back the next morning in the POURING rain for breakfast sandwiches. I could eat them everyday. $8 for bacon, egg and cheese. Steamy Hallow. 5 stars—this was a fun surprise. We were all wearing our Harry Potter shirts because we were seeing Cursed Child later in the day. At Tompkins bagels, someone asked if we were going to the Harry Potter themed pop up coffee shop. Well, we were now! It was only a few blocks away and had so many fun details. We got a butter beer hot chocolate to share. It was gone in an instant. City life is so fun!! $7 for the largeSnowday 4 stars. Blake gives it 5 stars. This was his favorite treat of the trip. It’s like a mix between shave ice and ice cream. Blocks of cream are shaved, and then topped with delicious toppings. $6

Caracas Arepas Bar. 3 stars. There were authentic and the corn shell was amazing. The Miss Piggy was by far the best. I give 3 stars because the other one we ordered, chicken and chorizo, wasn’t all that good. $10/each

S’mac 3 stars. You’ll notice a kid friendly theme for most our food stops in this trip. We got cheeseburger Mac and cheese and I though it was really fun. Halle and Josh liked it, but Blake didn’t.

Tatsu. 5 stars. Another unexpected find. Josh has been looking for a ramen burger ever since he tried one in San Fran 3 years ago. NYC delivers. This burger was AWESOME. And if I wasn’t already stuffed to the brim, I would have tried the regular ramen too. It looked fantastic.

I’m also going to included Stuffed Donuts (6 stars) on this list because it’s in the same neighborhood. We didn’t get there till Saturday night, but it was worth the effort! After the US Open men’s night match Blake and Halle had their fill of tennis. We knew if we hurried and everything went just right, we could make it to Stuffed Ice Cream just before midnight closing. We made it at 11:54. And then much to our disappointment, they told us last call for donuts is at 11:45. Blake started to cry as we were leaving. Just as we got to the door they shouted, “Wait! We’ll do it!! We feel so bad to see him so sad.” I told them they got a bunch of “good people points” and they said, “Actually, will you write us a great review on Yelp?” DONE. Blake got Cookie Monster and Halle got Red Velvet cookie dough. They tasted soooo good. The donut was warm and soft and the ice cream fit perfectly inside. I’d go back here in a heartbeat. $7/each