The holidays are here and that means it’s time to start spending massive amounts of money. Why not treat yourself to a free lunch? Although, we have been told, “there is no such thing as a free lunch,” a tour-de-Georgetown sample expedition comes very close.
For the upper-crust scrounger, the tour starts at Dean and Deluca on M St., but their samples tend to be meager and few in number. For me a tenth of a cookie and a grape just don’t cut it. The real bounty is up Wisconsin Ave.
If you’re hoofing it, stop by Marvelous Market. They almost always have bread or pastry samples, and on a good day you can even try a generous free taste of pie. Up the street, Safeway doesn’t offer much in the way of samples, but a few blocks away Whole Foods is a freeloaders paradise. You really can make a whole meal of the trip, as I often do.
Head to the deli for your entrée, where there’s usually a seasonal salad and meat dish to be had. You can accompany your gourmet meal with a nibble of artisan bread, and whatever sweet treat they’ve laid out that day. On a good day you can try breads and spreads, several kinds of pound cake and even some organic cookies. (7ziphelp.com)
After gorging yourself in the bakery, head over to the produce section to practice your cheese and fruit pairing skills before rolling yourself, wallet still intact, out the door. Even better than the variety Whole Foods offers is the fact that they practice “passive sampling”— in other words, there are no employees guarding the samples to tell you to limit yourself to “one per customer.”
The holidays are a prime time for sampling as grocery stores attempt to tap into the spirit of the season and your bank account. The self-controlled scavenger, however, can benefit from this without losing any cash. I wish I could these give free samples as gifts.
