Eataly

[weinoo]

Okay, this is an Italophile's wet dream.

A brief "tour" tonight included a delicious, if not unexpected, cheese and salumi platter served with mostarda, honey and candied citron.

Two expertly prepared pastas included paccheri with grouper, shrimp and calamari as well as fusilli con ragu. Pizza certainly more than acceptable. A misticanza like few others in NY.

I will be back as soon as I can to wander the aisles. Rows and rows of pasta, funghi, and tomatoes are calling me. And then I'll be back again.

[gastrodamus]

i did the opposite and hit the aisles. wound up with way more food than i anticipated. i spent the most amount of time in the cheese/meats aisle. prosciutto di parma (24 months), salsiccia secca dolce, speck, and spicy cacciatorini are my favorites out of the basket. most items are priced fairly, which makes you want to buy everything. my advice to first-time shoppers is to add $50 to your grocery budget for impulse items. you won't regret letting it get out of hand just this once.

can't wait to try the paccheri and the pizzas.

[weinoo]

most items are priced fairly, which makes you want to buy everything. my advice to first-time shoppers is to add $50 to your grocery budget for impulse items. you won't regret letting it get out of hand just this once.

The one-time only $50 won't be bad. It's every week that I'm worried about .

[edo]

Yeah, this place is great. I went this afternoon on the late side, and spent too much time wandering and by the time I was ready to get some food all they restaurants had shut down to prep for dinner service because they got so slammed they ran out of food:

They were going to reopen at 5:30.

Just as well, I got stuff to go and ate at home. More pics here: http://www.wordsmithingpantagruel.com/2010/09/eataly-batalis-new-york-italian.html

I definitely need to get back there to check out some of the restaurants, the stuff I saw looked great.

[Opty]

I had stopped by this morning at 9:30 AM before most of the food sections had opened, very impressive. My wife stayed and had some pasta later which she said was great.

I would say if you are not patient, better wait a few weeks. They still had a number of opening issues, as indicated above. In our case, in the coffee section, they deliberately held off on orders as the baristas couldn't keep up -- Completely understandable and that will all obviously improve.

Wish them the best of luck, the space is gorgeous. A friendly staffer offered us a personal tour.

Coffee and croissants were great, but need to return another time as I was there before many of the stations were stocked and manned. I

[docsconz]

I wonder how this will affect all the other Italian food importers & retailers in the city? They can't be happy.

[weinoo]

Got back today at the perfect time so the espresso bar wasn't much of a zoo.

And the espresso is perfectly serviceable...maybe even more likable to the general public than the espresso at some other places...

There's another espresso station. Take a look at this beauty...

Seemed a little more serious here. They were pulling shots of Jamican Blue Mountain at $5 a pop. I didn't try one.

This was more my goal...

Looked fairly hot in there...

The pizza was described with a lot of initials after it's name...T.S.G. And then the definition of those initials. Gives you something to read while you await the end product.

Worth the wait today. Cheese-less, only a sweet tomato puree with bits of thinly sliced garlic just melted from the heat of the oven, basil and olive oil atop a perfectly cooked crust.

That pie was $9 and the retail prices of some items certainly look comparable, if not a bit lower, than other high-end markets here.

Here's the shellfish counter...looking and even smelling sweet too.

I think Eataly sets a new bar. It brings together, for our shopping and dining pleasure, the high quality of product (at retail) that Batali has always demanded and the high quality of cooking that we've always expected from the Bastianich (and I mean Lydia here) and Batali et.al. kitchens. Is there anything else like this is the U.S.?

It has a certain energy; it'll be interesting to see how long that lasts. Sort of like what Otto was when it first opened; like no other Italian restaurant in the city, with a good deal of focus on the front room and standing and eating and drinking being OK.

At Eataly, it may be about standing and eating, or sitting at counters and eating or browsing the aisles while waiting for a table. It may be about nothing but shopping, for that perfect piece of mozzarella, 1/4 pound of prosciutto or to see if Silverton's sourdough has changed along with the seasons. It's beautiful and fresh and new. And the fact is, it's exciting.

There were plenty of people buying T-shirts and aprons today, and that's OK too. For me, it'll always be about the food first. I can get my Alessi somewhere else.

[weinoo]

Back to Eataly early on Saturday, to check out the seafood restaurant. Chef David Pasternack was working the crudi station and no surprise - it was quite good.

We started with a Pasternack classic - crudi...3 nice sized slices of pristine fish - I remember sockeye and (perhaps) bass or cod, barely dressed with citrus, olive oil and salt, alongside a tiny salad of sea beans. Crudi the way it should be.

A spiedino di mare from the appetizer portion of the menu was delicious - cooked "a la plancha" with juicy gulf shrimp, crisp bread cubes and tender squid. Actually, it was so good that Significant Eater complained loudly that I was eating more squid than she.

Finally, we shared a very good fritto misto (but would it hurt to throw a couple more pieces of scrap cod in there, please?) and a meager, yet delicious corn/cherry tomato saute.

Delicious? Undoubtedly. The best bargain in Eataly? Not really, but is great seafood ever a bargain? That lunch above, with 1 glass of rosé Bastianich, came to $85, including tip. Trust me, I could have eaten more - it goes without say that SE could've too.

If only the line for the pizza/pasta area wasn't 20 deep when we gave up our seats...

Full blog post, with pictures here.

[edo]

Nice! Looks like they have the fried minnows in the fritto misto? I had them as a Lupa special once and loved those little buggers.

[weinoo]

80 seconds in the oven...and pretty delicious, too.

[mrud]

i've been 2x and can't believe nobody has mentioned the maddening crowds. maybe it's just the opening buzz, but this place has so much potential that it could be crowded forever! on my first visit the service in the piazza was as confused as it could possibly be, but the crudo and antipasta (almost) made up for it. on my 2nd visit i could barely get in the door.

[Teddy Devico]

When I got to Eataly (after eating at Bar Boulud) there was line just to get into the store! Eataly is right next to Shake Shack and Eleven Madison Park. Batali and Bastianich vs. Danny Meyer and Daniel Humm. Who is going to win? I was wondering if I should even wait, but I decided to and am very happy that I did. Eataly is massive. There is so much inside. The shellfish they had was absolutely stunning. They had live sea urchin, live prawns, razor clams, cockles, etc. There meat selection was also incredible. They had whole rabbits, quail, squab, sweet breads, tongue, livers, and ducks. The Salumeri looked incredible. They were prosciuttos, bresolas, hams, and salamis. They all looked ambrosial. The cheeses were also awesome. There were fresh mozzarellas, 36 month old aged parmesians wheels that smelt great. Then out in the open there about 20 BLACK TRUFFLES!! They were under a glass dome. I wish I could hasve smelt them. There was a pizza place that had two gold pizza ovens, like Donatella's new place. There was fresh pasta being made. There was a pasta restaurant and a fine dining restaurant by Lidia Bastianich. There was also a pastry and gelato shop that looked and smelt great. I cannot wait to come back to Eataly hungry.

[DaleJ]

Visited Eataly a week ago, mid afternoon. Crushing crowds verging on mayhem. I wish it was more like the original in Turin. More "rooms", less "open" ambiance. (I guess everything B&B touch turns to gold.)

[oakapple]

I put up a blog post on Eataly last night. I do not view it as favorably as Teddy Devico.

As he noted, the crowds have been insane. At times, they've actually had to close the place to new customers, because those inside had reached the legal limit. Once you get in, the overcrowding has all the charm of an airport on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Wayfinding and signage are poor. Eataly has a "thrown together" look.

There are about 8 different places to eat, although only one (the restaurant Manzo; blog post here) takes reservations. At the others, waits of 45 minutes or more are routine at any reasonable eating time.

The food, by most accounts, is good once you finally get some. What I haven't heard is that Eataly is doing something unique-- with say, Pizza--that would justify the hassle of getting it.

Most of the market is so ridiculously over-priced that it seems like a sick joke. Pat LaFreida whole chickens for $23?

Edited October 19, 2010 by oakapple (log)

[mrud]

I put up a blog post on Eataly last night. I do not view it as favorably as Teddy Devico.

As he noted, the crowds have been insane. At times, they've actually had to close the place to new customers, because those inside had reached the legal limit. Once you get in, the overcrowding has all the charm of an airport on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Wayfinding and signage are poor. Eataly has a "thrown together" look.

There are about 8 different places to eat, although only one (the restaurant Manzo; blog post here) takes reservations. At the others, waits of 45 minutes or more are routine at any reasonable eating time.

The food, by most accounts, is good once you finally get some. What I haven't heard is that Eataly is doing something unique-- with say, Pizza--that would justify the hassle of getting it.

Most of the market is so ridiculously over-priced that it seems like a sick joke. Pat LaFreida whole chickens for $23?

so far, i'm more in agreement with this review. as i said above, i just don't see the wow factor wearing off any time sooner or later and i think i'm going to leave this place alone for quite a while.

[weinoo]

Most of the market is so ridiculously over-priced that it seems like a sick joke. Pat LaFreida whole chickens for $23?

How are LaFreida chickens branded - are they a Bell & Evans product, or a higher end bird? High end birds at Whole Foods are $5 a pound, making a 4.5 bird about the same price.

[Lindacakes]

I found it pleasantly disappointing.

There was a lot to like, there are some beautiful products. I bought a torrone for the wrapper, which I scanned and then saved. The torrone was excellent, but over sweet. I would have loved to have had some charcuterie, but the crowds were sickening. I personally cannot imagine myself seated at a table in the middle of an overpriced grocery store with people pushing past my table on their way to buy a bag of pasta from a precious display shelf of one kind of pasta, all lined up as though it were the Only Pasta.

Hence the pleasantness. Eataly will siphon off a certain element, and the rest of us can enjoy the increased peace at our favorite, quiet, local spots.

[Fat Guy]

I'm still processing my first visit to Eataly. The scale of the place, combined with the population density, overwhelmed me. It seemed like there must have been two thousand people in there midday yesterday, and 1,999 of them seemed completely comfortable in the environment. Me, I wanted to run and hide.

The physical space is just awe-inspiring. In terms of square footage, it's about half the size of the Harlem Costco. The unusual combination of large quantity and high quality is a little disorienting. You want to think that, when it comes to stuff like prosciutto, smaller is better. But Eataly is able to power through something like 20 whole prosciuttos a day and is only getting excellent ones. There seem to be a lot of corporate tie-ins such that the companies controlling many of the best Italian products are funneling large shipments of those products to Eataly.

My friend and I were, miraculously, able to score a table at La Pizza & Pasta without a wait. There were parties of four being told an hour, but there was no wait for us for two, and then I heard them telling the party of two behind us 20 minutes. We had a mixed salume plate of the highest quality, a pizza Margherita that was correctly made if you like the slightly-soggy-in-the-middle style that fresh mozzarella basically forces, and some agnolotti that could not have been better.

The bread-baking operation is impressive, the pasta selection tremendous ... there's no point in listing everything and it will take ten visits to get my arms around it all, not that I'm going to survive ten visits.

I'm going back next week for dinner at Manzo. We'll see how that goes.

[mrud]

I personally cannot imagine myself seated at a table in the middle of an overpriced grocery store with people pushing past my table on their way to buy a bag of pasta from a precious display shelf of one kind of pasta

great post lindacakes. for now, i couldn't (unfortunately) agree more.

[mrud]

Is anyone going to attempt white truffle day tomorrow? If it's too packed where would you go from there if you absolutely had to have truffles?

[Fat Guy]

The Urbani truffle store on 60th and West End, which opened this summer, is pretty incredible.

[mrud]

thanks steven

do you think there's any reason to even try getting into eataly tomorrow? also, does the place you recc just sell whole truffles or do they prepare dishes with them?

[Fat Guy]

It's a truffle store, not a restaurant. They sell many truffle products in addition to whole truffles, but no cooked dishes.

I don't know that Eataly will be any more crowded than usual, but you never know.

[johnder]

So I usually go to Eataly once a week, usually running out in early afternoon from work for a quick trip to pick up a few things for dinner. There are a few things to know in regards my trips to Eataly that make this trip a lot easier:

Keep an eye on prices and know what is overpriced and what is a deal. For instance I was looking for some seafood for dinner, their price on whole sea bass was 15.95 a pound whereas the farmers market had it for 8.95 that morning. However, that Thursday (and apparently every Thursday) they get fresh whole sardines in. They were $4.95 and they would gut and ice them down for you for the trip.

Another example would be puntarella, which they had on sale one day for $3 a pound, whereas the next week it was $6. It is all about spotting the deals (or mislabels) and capitalizing on it.

Know where stuff is and how to get there as quickly as possible. There are a few quick ways to get around to avoid the crowds. I for one always enter in through the 23rd street exit as it avoids the nightmare of the cafe/coffee/gelato area where I never buy anything from.

In regards to dining, I am not sure why anyone would want to sit at the tables in the middle of the action getting bumped around. But I do enjoy sitting at the bar of pizza/seafood/manzo on occasion. It it no different sitting at the bar and eating that from an otherwise busy restaurant on a friday/saturday night.

Then again the biggest trick is to avoid peak times. Usually 3-5:30pm it is about empty as you will ever see it. 7pm it is a zoo.

[Chris Amirault]

What does about as "empty as you'll ever see it" look like? Significant but negotiable crowds? I have in-laws coming for the holidays from Montana, and while they'd find the food spectacle amazing, being part of a NYC consumer herd is pretty much a circle of hell for these west-of-the-rockies types.