After a short introduction and history of Venice, Rodd led us to The Anchor for our 1st course. We were served a mini Lobster Roll served on a Hawaiian sweet roll. It was very good; large chunks of lobster with some truffles which tasted even sweeter on the sweet roll. I could have eaten 3 of those. While we were enjoying our lobster roll, Rodd introduced us to the owner, the lobster expert. She was delightful as she talked about the lobster being flown in everyday from the East Coast. She also happened to mention that Meryl Streep often dines there and has parties catered by them. We looked forward to more deliciousness to come.
We walked to the second restaurant which was called Cafe Gratitude. Their menu was interesting and animated. It started with I AM....when you order something, you are supposed to start with the phrase: "I AM......" The entree we were to have was called Elated. So we ordered: " I am elated" which was a Mole Abuelita Enchilada with black beans, cashew, roasted tomatillo sauce, avocado, coleslaw and escabeche. It too was delicious and the size was just right.
Walking to the next restaurant was nice since we felt good and not guilty since we were burning calories before the next course as opposed to sitting in a restaurant waiting for the next course. The third was Gjusta, a relative of the famous Gjelina. Gjusta is a bakery, deli and cafe. There is no sign on their door or anywhere else, you just have to go by the address. Inside was wild; they had the most beautiful variety of bread on display. They had cured fish, an assortment of cheeses, meats, cookies and flatbread. We had a choice of flatbread pizzas. Mertz chose the sausage and I chose the mushroom. I asked a server for soda (diet coke) and according to Mertz, he had a "kodak moment" of an expression on his face. He proceeded to tell me they don't serve sodas. So I asked what they did had to drink. He said they had cucumber something......I tuned him out after I heard the word cucumber. I asked what else they served and he proudly said they had Lemonade with ginger, which I ordered. I had to go to the counter to order and pay for it. The ginger sparkling lemonade was almost $6.00! As soon as I got to my table I had a sip of the lemonade. I almost fell off my chair. It was the sourest liquid I have had in my whole life! It was horrible. I was just about to ask for Splenda when Mertz interrupted me and informed me that a place with no soda will have no Splenda. She was right so I went to the coffee station to get some natural sugar. I got 2 rounded tablespoonfuls of brown sugar and dumped it in my lemonade. It didn't even make a hint of a difference. I had Mertz try it and she too didn't detect any sugar. It was a total waste of money. The pizzas were thin, crusty and good; not anything like Pizzeria Mozza but edible. Rodd treated us to an order of broccolini which we enjoyed.
Just before we left, I ordered 2 loaves of Sourdough Bread. That bread was wonderful and deserves a blog of its own.
Our last stop and 4th course was at Blue Star Donuts. We were introduced to Anthony who invited us to the kitchen as he demonstrated dunking the donut in the Blueberry Bourbon Basil Glaze. The donut itself was nothing special, in fact it was a bit on the dry side but the glaze was amazing. It probably would have been a lot better if the donut itself was fresh out of the oven. Nevertheless, Tony was as sweet as the glaze as he explained the process of making the donuts.
We ended our tour short of 3 hours. We were happy to do the tour, our guide was the best though next time it would be better to fully investigate the type of food and restaurants in advance. We didn't think it was worth $90 per person.
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