A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours Celebrates Fifth Anniversary

Aug. 17, 2010 - PRLog -- “Manhattan? FUHGETTABOUDIT!” That’s the official slogan of “A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours” (http://www.asliceofbrooklyn.com) as they celebrate their fifth anniversary taking tourists from around the country, and around the world, on guided bus tours of one of the most famous, and infamous, places in the world.

Started in 2005 by native Brooklynite Tony Muia, the tours feature Brooklyn’s favorite foods, neighborhoods, landmarks and famous movie locations like Saturday Night Fever, Goodfellas, the French Connection and more.

Over 20,000 people have been introduced to the borough through Muia’s “Pizza Tour”, “Neighborhood Tour” and “Christmas Lights & Cannoli Tour”. The tours have been featured on the Today Show, the Travel Channel, and Food Network. They’ve been written up in the pages of the New York Times, the London Times and are also sold on Expedia and Travelocity.

“I wanted to create an easy way for visitors to hop on a bus in Manhattan and experience Brooklyn from a native’s perspective” says owner/operator Tony Muia. “When I started doing tours five years ago, nobody was bothering to go pick people up in Manhattan and bring them to Brooklyn. So I took it upon myself to be its official ambassador.”

Dubbed “Mister Brooklyn himself” by NBC’s Today Show, Muia started with the wildly popular “A Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour” which features stops at Grimaldi’s under the Brooklyn Bridge as well as L&B Spumoni Gardens. Also included is a stop at Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Coney Island boardwalk. Movie scenes include the famous scene from Saturday Night Fever on 86th Street where Tony Manero stops at Lenny’s for two slices.

Then came the “Brooklyn Neighborhood Tour” which features areas like the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Green-Wood Cemetery, the original location of Ebbet’s Field, movie locations from Moonstruck, The Godfather, As Good As it Gets as well as a stop at the original Junior’s that includes their world famous cheesecake and an egg cream.

The third tour was the “Christmas Lights and Cannoli Tour” which features the world famous Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn as well a stop at Mona Lisa Pastry Shop for cannoli and cappuccino. Tony was seen on Samantha Brown’s “Holidays in New York” special in December of 2010 escorting Samantha through the area.

Besides doing tours for the general public, Muia and his tour guide Paula (Tony’s cousin and another native Brooklynite) act as hop-on guides for tour operators from around the country. It’s a family run business, so you might even see Tony’s Uncle Louie get in on the act from time to time greeting customers.

“The best part has been showing people who’ve never been to Brooklyn how easy it is to get here, how wonderfully unique all the neighborhoods are, how many classic movies were filmed here and how much history and great food sits just across the river from Manhattan.” Adds Muia, “Ah, who am I kidding? The best part is hearing them say ‘Manhattan? FUHGETTABOUDIT!’”

# # #

A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours is the only company in NYC that conducts guided bus tours of Brooklyn's favorite foods, unique neighborhoods, historic landmarks and famous movie locations. Passengers get picked up and dropped off in Manhattan.