Eataly

Grocery store? Yes. Restaurant cluster? Yes. “Slow” fast food? Yes. Shameless promotion of Italy? Yes. Great Fun? Oh yes! A wonderful celebration of Italian cooking? Ah…yes!

The store is best entered from the 23rd Street entrance where there is a service desk, the verdure (fresh produce) area and then a large La Piazza or hall with stand-up tables, all surrounded with specialty corners with formaggeria, mozzarella, crudo, salumeria, and a corner of the Ristorante Verdure. This leads in three directions. To the right is a long narrow wing featuring the pasticceria, paninoteca, chocolate, gelateria, and Caffe Lavazza espresso café. Straight ahead is a wonderful arrosti di carne and Manzo Ristorante (formal). Going left, you wander past the fish market, Il Pesce restaurant, panetteria, and pasta fresca—which opens up to the La Pasta and La Pizza table area, the market, plus a bookshop and housewares area. In the midst of all of this is a wonderful wine store with its entrance on 23rd Street. Tucked onto 24th Street are a small pizza-to-go area and a scuola di cucina.

The hours for eating are 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 12:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Sundays, with a “first come first served” seating system.

Prices are north of moderate, but are what you might expect for exceptional quality products.

With an efficient check out system, the wait time was acceptably short. There was lots of serious shopping going on, as well as a very busy restaurant scene.

Will Eataly be a success? On a Monday morning, the place was quiet, with lots of action at noon. On the weekend, there was a crowd-controlled line-up at the 5th Avenue espresso bar wing.

Per adesso tutto bene! So far, so good!