All photography appearing in this post taken by Holli Lapes
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On Saturday, June 7th 2014, fellow foodie Denise Righetti invited The South Florida Sage to check out one of her newest culinary endeavours; Savor The City Culinary Tours: Taste Atlantic Ave edition. Denise has been organizing foodie events here in SoFla since 2009. I met Denise at the annual Boca Locals Food & Wine Zone event at the lovely Sonoma House venue in east Boca. We also were on the Boca Locals Meatball Madness competition judging panel together earlier this year.

Ive been a citizen of Boca Raton for quite a while. A few years ago, before I really started venturing out to Miami and other areas of South Florida, Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach was my local go to spot for some fun&eats. It has been my local refuge from Boca Raton. I might add though that Boca Raton has gained some cool spots over the past couple years (The Sybarite Pig, Rebel House, etc..). Anyway, despite the plethora of food I still need to check out in South Florida- I still enjoy “The Ave”. In fact, there are some places I visited on Savor The City Culinary Tour that I had never been to before!

^Our fearless leader, Denise!

First up, The Office! Fun decor on the inside, but also it is enjoyable to sit at their outside bar which faces the Pineapple murals on the walls of the Pineapple Grove section. Oh and by the way, Savor The City Culinary Tours offers a Pineapple Grove edition on the 3rd Thursday of every month.

Guests receive a Harpoon UFO sample and we share a few of “The Office Burger” among us (a blend of chuck, loin and brisket) with none other than sides of truffle fries.  As a side note- I really dig the Pear Martini at The Office.

Our second stop is Taverna Opa where we get to MAKE OUR OWN HUMMUS! How awesome is that?!

Above is the yummy lemony chicken and roasted potatoes we chowed down on (Im pretty obsessed with those potatoes). We had some greek white wines as a pairing. Below, participants of the tour share some laughs outside Taverna Opa as we get ready to visit the next stop.

We stop at a speciality store called The Ancient Olive where we enjoyed more than just olives.

Here is the sample platter of goat cheese and jam spread with dried fruits and crackers. There were mustard tastings, hot sauces, and more! I tried a few varieties of olives that were set up to taste as well as numerous unique flavor infused oils and vinegars. I enjoyed the blood orange infused olive oil and the espresso infused balsamic vinegar.

Throughout the tour, our guide Denise enlightened us about some of the historical aspects of Delray Beach. This included interesting facts about some of the architecture along Atlantic Avenue. One of buildings highlighted was The Colony Hotel & Cabana Club:

After, we continued our culinary experience at Big Al’s Steak for some classic philly cheese steaks & birch beer.

Ill be honest, I am a provolone-on-my-cheesesteak kinda gal, but- I had to go with the classic cheese whiz on this one. One of the owners told us the story of Big Al’s as we enjoyed our grass fed beef cheese steaks with grilled onions on bread that has been brought over from Philly. Apparently, South Florida stopped having Philly cheesesteak contests because Big Al’s would win every year. Impressive!

Next, we head over to Tryst Delray:

Below: Not your typical Caesar salad; the lettuce is locally sourced from a farmer in Boynton Beach, the dressing is house made and the parmesan cheese is nice strong.

Last but not least is dessert at one of the more recent additions to the avenue, Sloans Delray Beach.

Scoop of Fresh Strawberry ice cream and scoop of Pretzel ice cream:

Group photo!

PS thats me in the Aqua shirt 🙂

Thanks to Denise at Savor The City Culinary Tours for an awesome time! http://savorthecity.info/