The Italian Labyrinth
A lovely assortment with something for everyone: toast, pickled veggies, olives, salami, prosciutto, burrata, raddichio, broccoli rabe, and whatever else I missed — Eataly
You turn the corner once again only to find that you’re exactly where you started. At this point you’re starting to become nervous. Your head swivels back and forth, sweat forming on your brow as you stare down the horizon of aisles. You look to your left. Pasta. To your right. Sauce. Olive oil. Taralli. Pasta again. This time a different shape.
You are in Eataly.
You’ve always been in Eataly.
What you have just read is not the start of my next grocery-themed Choose Your Own Adventure title, L’intrappolato: The Italian Labyrinth, but a brief synopsis of what it is like wandering into an Eataly for the first time.
Today we’re looking back at my recent weekend with my parents, as I continue to recap the various meals I shoveled into my body during that time. If you haven’t already, this chronologically follows our lunch at Nish Nush the same day. There was a lot of walking between meals. Trust me.
Eataly was founded by Oscar Farinetti back in 2010, with its first location in Turin (Torino), Italy. Farinetti would expand to New York City within the same year. Nowadays there are dozens of locations, including two in New York. My folks and I ended up at the NYC Downtown location.
Described by The New York Times as a a “Whole-Foods-style supermarket, a high-end food court and a New Age learning center,” Farinetti’s vision is certainly all-encompassing. The most magical part of exploring the grounds of the indoor marketplace is coming across the individual stalls and eateries within the complex. There’s a cheesemonger, chocolatier, gelateria, brick oven pizza place, fishmonger, butcher, and on and on and on.
The catered experience evokes the image of a theme park to me, although one whose culinary authenticity I can both attest to and actually respect. It’s like a Littler Italy.
Besides those vendors there are also grocery aisles, a produce corner, sectioned off areas for cooking classes, and fridges for passerby to appreciate the aged car-tire-sized cheese wheels and haunches of cured meats. And remember, all of this can be found within the same singular, shared location. Labyrinthine is a fair descriptor.
When in doubt, without fail, pizza.
We were seated in the restaurant area, where we sampled from a respectable charcuterie board, crisp-crusted pizza with just the right amount of sauce and toppings to be considered light (for pizza), and a few wines of varieties I’ve never heard of nor whose names do I have any memory of. There was a red and a white wine. Both good. Look, I’m no sommelier.
Returning to those theme park vibes that I was getting, I found the prices throughout to be what I expected. A tad overpriced, even though the food quality is legitimately good. Being a chain establishment especially, it’s no surprise that you’ll be coming across boutique-like prices.
At the end of the day, it was a good treat and a tasty meal, just a few steps removed from where I would go if I was looking for good Italian food. We’ve still got regular Little Italy for that.
My allegiances still lie with Time Out Market. Speaking of, I haven’t had the chance to check out the NYC location. More on that down the line with my new new book, Time Out of Time: Starlit, Market, Eat It.
