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By Irene Merenda

How fortunate are we to live in a town where people visit from all over the world? How often do we, as residents, take advantage of what the city offers to visitors? Some friends invited us to go on a Food and Wine Tour with them on a recent afternoon, a tour offered through Tour St. Augustine. What a delightful afternoon we had playing “tourist” in our awesome home town!

We met, Ed, our tour guide at 4 Granada Street and were greeted with a small glass of wine and an invitation to go next door to our first stop. There’s nothing like wine and chocolate to start off a great afternoon. Claude’s Chocolates ( 6 Granada Street) just happens to be next door to our meeting location and we were treated to three of their finest filled bonbons. The proprietor wanted us to know that their candy is made from the finest Belgian chocolate and is a “much higher quality than other chocolates we might find in St. Augustine.”

I don’t know about that, but I do know it was scrumptious!

Our next stop was at Casa Monica at 95 Cordova Street. I have passed the building dozens of time, but have never stepped inside. It was built in 1888 and has reserved an “old world” feel with heavy, ornate gold decor with Moroccan art and fixtures. This stop featured 2 delicious appetizers…..a Spanish style “pizza” and lightly fried, cheesy jambon (ham) “croquettes.”

Next on our agenda was Old City House Inn and Restaurant. (115 Cordova Street) I had no idea that this charming inn and restaurant even existed! We were the only ones seated in a lovely, peaceful garden with wrought iron furniture, filtered sunshine and blooming flowers and greenery in every direction. Here, we were treated to salmon over mashed potatoes and spinach. The salmon was moist and fresh, and the potato/spinach combo was creamy, garlicky and delicious. Honestly, I could have spent the afternoon drinking the delicious Pinot Grigio we were served, but, alas, it was too soon time to move on.

At the Ancient Olive (47 King Street) we sampled infused oils and balsamic vinegars of every flavor you can imagine. Rows of oils have little cups from which you can sample and combine with the rows of vinegars. My favorites were the lemon oil combined with the basil balsamic, and the truffle oil combined with traditional balsamic. Others in my group were much more daring than I. The habanero oil was too hot for even my husband, which says a lot if you know Frank! There was also sampling of different types of honey along was an adorable gift shop selling everything related to the products I’ve mentioned.

The Gifted Cork was next. (64 Hypolita Street) This little shop has a huge variety of wines and cheeses from regions all over the world. Today’s tastings featured Eastern European wines. If you have read my previous reviews, you know that I’m about as far from being a “wine connoisseur” as one can imagine. I either like a wine or I don’t, and that’s the extent of my knowledge. I did not care for these particular wines, but others in my party described them as “very interesting.” You may interpret that however you like. Wines that I had on a previous visit to the Gifted Cork were excellent. My favorite part of this visit was browsing in the gift shop, which has all sorts of cute, funny and lovely wine stoppers, wine carry bags, coctail napkins, glassware, cheeseboards, etc.

The Athena Restaurant was our next stop. (14 Cathedral Place) There, we had “Kofalograviera.” (The waitress was kind enough to write that down for me, after I asked her 3 times what I was eating.) It is a wonderful sheep’s cheese which our server lit on fire at our table to give it a smokey, delicious flavor, spread on pita slices. We also had lamb gyros which were spicy and excellent.

Our last stop was Bovine Creamery and Fine Chocolates. (90 Charlotte Street) By this time, you probably can imagine that we were all feeling rather “bovinous”, (I’m pretty sure i just made up that word) and very happy! However, this didn’t stop us from enjoying a too-large cup full of vanilla frozen custard topped with our choice of either chocolate or bourbon balsamic vinegar. I had the chocolate and everyone else had the bourbon. After tasting theirs, I realized my choice was the runner up. If bourbon balsamic vinegar sounds like a strange thing to put over vanilla custard, you need to try it!

As I prepared this article, I wished I had taken more pictures of food. However, this tour was not only about food and wine. Our guide, Ed, who also teaches Speech Communication at Flagler College, was a font of St. Augustine knowledge. All along our route, he shared stories that were informative, funny, heart-warming, scary, silly and every other adjective you can imagine. So engrossed in his stories, I often forgot to photograph the food until it was half eaten, and that would not do the presentation justice. Ed and this entire afternoon tour were absolutely delightful. The website offers 50% off for St Augustine residents on weekdays. We used a Groupon. We have already decided that, the next time we have out of town guests, we will surely book this tour again. But there’s really no need to wait for guests to be tourists…..be a home-town tourist yourself!

5 Spoonbills!