Monday, July 7, 2014

A Saturday in the City

Saturday was something I'd been looking forward to since the week after my plans to move were finalized. You see, back in March (I think) my parents and sister went on a chocolate tour of Georgetown and it sounded...and looked absolutely delicious. My Mom told me the week after I'd sold my house that she booked us on a cupcake and macaroon tour in Georgetown for Saturday, July 5th and I was thrilled!

So, we (I) drove into the big city of Georgetown on Saturday...the irony that I just labeled a place with town in it's name as a city isn't lost on me, but whatever...to explore and taste some delicious treats. I separated this into it's own post because I might have taken about fifty photos over the course of the day and I needed to share all of them, ha-ha!

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, viewed from across the Potomac in Georgetown!

Oh gosh - there were so many people on the river Saturday! 

Lunch at one of our favorite spots - Filomena's - absolutely delicious Italian food!

The Old Stone House, smack dab in the middle of the hustle & bustle of Georgetown!

The gardens behind the Old Stone House!
Our cupcake and macaroon tour consisted of seven stops and at each shop we learned a little bit about the business and we were able to sample some of their delicious wares. While I love a good cupcake (and who doesn't?) I was even more excited about getting to have some macaroons! We started our tour at Sprinkles Cupcakes and if you weren't aware, this is the chain that is most recently famous for their cupcake ATM's - I'm not even joking! Sadly, the Georgetown location doesn't have an ATM...yet! They do have absolutely delicious cupcakes though and word has it an ATM is coming around Thanksgiving.

Sprinkles Cupcakes - they may be my new favorite!

Some of the flavors? Lemon Blueberry, Cinnamon Sugar, Dark Chocolate, Vanilla, Orange....

We got to sample a miniature red velvet and dark chocolate cupcake - they were divine!

She had so much personality & really seemed to enjoy working for Sprinkles - which I thought was nice.

Some of the row houses in Georgetown - I love them & I'm sure they go for at least a million or more...eek!
Our second stop was Thomas Sweets - a family run business that I'm telling you, we must have walked about a mile to get to...thankfully it was only 84 outside but that was still pretty warm! I've never been so pleased to see a big bottle of water as I was when we arrived at Thomas Sweets - granted, the fudge we sampled was also quite delicious!

Thomas Sweets - right on the corner!

Check out all of those chocolates - don't they look divine??

Salted Caramel fudge on the bottom & Dark Chocolate fudge on the top - we both liked the salted caramel best!

Stacks on stacks on stacks of fudge....lovely!

There were just a few things on the menu to choose from....

We caught a little bit of the World Cup while we were all sampling our fudge!

Adios Thomas Sweets - you were delicious!
Stop Number Three on the tour was - Macaron Bee! And yes, it is really spelled that way. My Mom and I certainly thought they were called macaroons but at every stop involving these delightful little treats, they pronounced it macaron...so, I guess they're macarons. I prefer to call them macaroons! :) Macaron Bee was way up the hill, was a tiny little shop that the 22 of us on the tour crammed into and it had a beautiful display case filled with beautiful treats! I had to make a purchase here - they were too lovely, crisp and tasty not to get a couple to take home!

One of my favorite stops on the tour - I do love macaroons!

From the left: Passion Fruit, Dark Chocolate, Espresso, Raspberry, Coconut & Vanilla Bean!

Okay - I don't remember all the rest of these...the pale brown are milk chocolate and the green are pistachio, but that's about all I've got!

We tried Passion Fruit & for the life of me I can't remember what the purple is...because it was in French. Oh well.

Window display - so cute!

Why yes - I did get some macaroons & they were divine!

A girl on the tour so kindly offered to watch a woman's dog while she stepped in the Macaron Bee to place an order. Her reward was three macaroons! How nice!
We made our way just a few steps down the hill to Patisserie Poupon, a French bakery, coffee shop and deli. This stop was pretty short; we essentially wandered through the store and out the back, walked up the tiny alley and back out front where our tour guide was waiting with a box filled with mini pastries! They were all so delicious and because he had a whole box, my Mom and I were able to each get our one treat (which we split) and then split one more! Yahoo!

Do you have any Grey Poupon? Wait...that's not right...

A quick stop at the patisserie for a treat!

Our first treats: a chocolate mousse mouse and a pistachio tart - both so good!

And our third little bite - this was a delicious coffee pastry that was divine!

The pastries on display - oh my goodness!

Alleyway selfie - ha-ha!
We trekked on through Georgetown side streets on our way to our final three stops, which were all right across from one another on three of the four street corners - talk about a one-stop shop! Our first stop once we arrived was Olivia Macaron...the home of even more lovely and absolutely delicious macaroons! I was so excited for another stop with these little goodies - yahoo!

The house that JFK lived in before he was married....

Row houses in Georgetown - I want one! Oh well, in my dreams.

A beautiful church in Georgetown - so lovely & the church home of many historical figures; namely Francis Scott Key, who was living in Georgetown when he made his visit to Fort McHenry & wrote a certain famous song....

Two little Corgis that had been left on the cobblestone while their owners got some snacks, ha-ha!

Olivia Macaroon - delicious and so cute!

That chick - so absolutely grinny. She was excited about the macaroons...which is understandable!

Look at the little macaroon trees!

S'mores on the top & Salted Caramel on the bottom - they were both divine!

May I please have that whole tree of macaroons? Thank you!
The second to the last stop...but really the last stop so to speak was Dean and DeLuca and my, what a heavenly place it is indeed! This place is filled with cookies, chocolates, cakes, macaroons, wine, cheese...basically anything and everything you could imagine. I was pretty impressed with the whole set-up, however I was even more impressed when a couple saw some cheese that was $32.50 a pound and immediately grabbed it up to buy! Congratulations folks - you're obviously doing well in life! The last "stop" on the tour was Georgetown Cupcakes but that actually just involved our guide picking up the samples because as always, the line outside Georgetown Cupcakes wrapped around the building and all the way up the block. Nope.

Dean & DeLuca - absolutely delightful.

A wonderful smorgasbord of delightful things!

Check out all the amazing cookies!

Macaroons, pastries & tarts galore - yum!

The treat at Dean & DeLuca was an Apricot macaroon with a balsamic reduction sauce. And it was delicious - hello!

Check out those blinging almonds!

Chocolate as far as the eye can see...

Oh look - Nefertiti on some chocolate...

Delicious chocolate hearts...yes please.

Have you ever in your life seen such color?

I know I haven't - I wanted one of each!

Some seriously sparkly dinosaur cookies!

My mini red velvet cupcake from Georgetown Cupcakes - yum.
So there you have it - we walked all over Georgetown and had all kinds of delicious treats! This is definitely the way to get some yummy tastes without feeling too guilty because you most likely walk off everything as you eat it, ha-ha! Maybe next time there is a chocolate tour, I'll go right ahead and sign myself up!

The bank in Georgetown - I love the golden rotunda!

The C&O Canal running through the center of Georgetown!

Have sweet thoughts!

1 comment: