Most of Manhattan’s streets and avenues are laid out in a numerical grid pattern that is very easy to follow – most. Once you get into the southern reaches of Greenwich Village all bets are off. The urban planner’s T-square and straight edge give way to those streets that seem to have been drawn by someone in knickers following the meandering paths of cows belonging to those early Dutch and English settlers. But, then again, all your instincts tell you, there have got to be hidden treasures down those winding streets. To find the good ones . . . enter Addie Tomei and Savory Sojourns.

Yes, she is related to that Tomei, her daughter, the Academy Award-winning actress, Marisa, and the resemblance is apparent the moment Addie walks into view. Her genuine enthusiasm for her work is also apparent, the moment she greets you and asks you to join her for breakfast at Rocco’s Pastry Shop at 243 Bleecker Street, just west of Avenue of the Americas.

Addie Tomei on a Savory Sojourn in Greenwich Village © 2004 Tony Tedeschi

My wife, Candy, and I are part of a group of six. The others are a father and son from California, and a mother and daughter from Texas. Both duos had heard about Savory Sojourns on the Food Channel. These tour groups usually run eight to 20, but this is Good Friday, early in spring, after a particularly difficult New York winter and business promises to ramp up with the improving weather. Our day is delightfully warm and sunny, low sixties, perfect for a walkabout.

Rocco’s is one of those typically citied small business layouts, the narrow width of the place facing the street, then a length that stretches toward the back of the store. One side is rows of tables, the other an interminable counter above a glass display case that includes so many delicious-looking cakes, pastries and cookies choosing something is near impossible. Addie recommends a delicious selection of pastries. As accompaniment, I opt for a cappuccino; Candy a hot tea. Thus fortified with carbs, we exit Rocco’s into the sunlit morning.

"I just want to say hello to my butcher," Addie says, as we walk into Ottomanelli & Sons at 285 Bleecker. She exchanges "Buona Pasqua" Easter greetings with the butchers, while we marvel at the fresh cuts of meat in cases all about us. Clearly, this escapade is going to be about neighborhood and clearly Addie is a member of this one.

Murrays Cheese Shop

We get a bit of Murray’s on the breeze before we enter the cheese shop at 257 Bleecker. Serious gastro distress would result from any attempt to try a significant portion of the more than 400 varieties available here, but a sampling of Capra, Piave, Cielo and Mancheco prepared by the sales gent in blonde dreadlocks is a heavenly taste treat only possible with great cheese.

When was the last time you were in a pork store? For me it was on daily shopping trips with my grandmother, around our neighborhood in Queens. Don’t ask how many years ago. Well The Village still has one, Fiacco’s at 260 Bleecker. We have delicious rice balls, while I try to determine how to get one of those great looking roasts into my backpack. I demur.

Fiaccos Pork Store

When Joanne Pelletiere took over at Aphrodisia, 264 Bleecker, 25 years ago, the shop had been there for about a decade. Joanne was turning an interest in herbs into a life’s work. Aphrodisia contains supplies of everything from chili to saffron, fragrant bath products to scented cachets. Candy spoons out a small bag of chili and one of cilantro.

Aphrodisia for herbs and spices

Olive & Co., at 249 Bleecker, is a New York outlet for a company based in Provence. While I have been to French wine tastings, an olive oil tasting was a new experience. We sample Italy’s Castelluccio (grassy), France’s Domaine de Fray (creamy), Greece’s Mantinea & Aria (nutty with a peppery finish), Uruguay’s Los Ranchos (also grassy). There is olive oil with basil, olive jam, as well as many other variations on the theme.

Olive oil chandelier at Olive Co.

Now, we are standing before a nondescript doorway in what appears to be a residential building at 86 Bedford Street.

"You don’t come here for the food," Addie allows. "This is an ambience kind of place."

What is?

This is Chumley’s, begun as a speakeasy during Prohibition and still maintaining that . . . ambience. There is a flight of stairs up off the street, then another down into a bar area below street level.

"The stairs were installed that way so patrons could slip out the back during police raids," Addie explains.

Writers frequented here, including the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, who lived nearby. We saunter in to the sounds of Billie Holiday, slip out the back into a small courtyard, adjacent to an apartment house. A woman leans out its window. "Why, Addie Tomei," she says. They exchange greetings. Addie identifies her as Cynthia Hilts a jazz singer and pianist. "How about a song?" Addie asks. Cynthia slips back into her apartment and soon the music drifts out over the windowsill. Now this could be a scene in one of Marisa’s movies.

Raffetto’s, at 144 West Houston, is the classic fresh pasta shop and deli, found in any New York Italian neighborhood worthy of the designation. We are greeted by Romana Raffetto. I ask about her interesting first name. She says her parents conceived her during the Roman honeymoon. O.K. People at these places really do enjoy conversational exchanges.

Then there is Joe’s Dairy, at 156 Sullivan Street. Specialty: fresh mozzarella. As someone who could eat that until I explode, once I’d have a taste of Joe’s there is no going back. It is the creamiest I’ve ever had, with a touch more flavor. I tell Addie I am ruined. I will have to journey in from Long Island at least once a week to get a fresh mozzie here. It’s no wonder this dairy shop supplies the finer restaurants in New York.

Our wonderful excursion through Greenwich Village foodie-ville ends at Bar Pitti, at 268 Avenue of the Americas, between Bleecker and Houston Streets. By late in the lunch hour the place is packed. I find that amazing since Pitti takes no credit cards and lunch is usually make-or-break via business people overspending on plastic. It must, I reason, be the food. Duh.

We share appetizers of sautéed spinach, sardines, eggplant parmeggiano and cauliflower sprinkled with tiny bits of sautéed wild boar. The latter is enough to have me order the entrée of wide noodles in a wild boar Bolognese sauce. It works, as well, on two others in our group. Candy has penne with turkey sausage and peas in a cream sauce. Others have red snapper, linguini with baby clams.

We part company out front at Pitti, in a day grown delightfully warm, disappearing into the waves of pedestrians heading north on the avenue, Candy and I bound for Penn Station and the ’burbs. We feel decidedly reattached to a sense of neighborhood via that common language that defines the most interesting neighborhoods throughout the world: food.

Savory Sojours offers tours of other New York neighborhoods, from Manhattan’s Chinatown to Brooklyn’s Little Arabia on Atlantic Avenue to The Bronx’s Little Italy on Arthur Avenue, and many more. Rates range from $85 per person to $160. For information on itineraries, rates and policies, visit on the web at: http://savorysojourns.com