Food Tours · Tour

Pierogi in Greenpoint, Cannoli in Carroll Gardens, by Coach

Four and a half hours, and the only way in this list to cover Brooklyn properly, because Brooklyn is seventy square miles and its food neighbourhoods are not walkable from each other. You board an air-conditioned mini-coach on Bleecker Street in Manhattan and the bus does the distance while you do the eating. Williamsburg first, for Middle Eastern food among the galleries and boutiques. Then Greenpoint, the Polish enclave that has held its ground since the 1890s, for pierogi and kielbasa from places that have been selling both to the same families for decades, with the guide filling in how the neighbourhood arrived and how it is changing. Gowanus follows, warehouses turned into galleries, breweries and kitchens along a canal that is one of the country's more notorious cleanup projects. Carroll Gardens, still one of the most Italian corners of the borough, provides the cannoli, filled to order if the place is any good. DUMBO closes it, with coal-fired pizza and the view of the Manhattan skyline framed under the Manhattan Bridge that has become the most photographed angle in Brooklyn. Six tastings, which together come to a full lunch. Then you choose: walk back to Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge, or take the coach back to Greenwich Village. Up to twenty-three travellers with a licensed guide, in English. Luggage can be stored on board. Vegetarian works with notice; vegan, dairy-free and nut-free cannot, because the menus are fixed, and there are no custom gluten-free substitutes although some tastings happen to be gluten-free. Drinks are extra. Bring your own child seat for anyone under six.