Eataly

Ed and I spent our first weekend together in New York for what seemed a very long time this weekend, and it was great. My friend Dave was visiting from Boston, so we enjoyed spending time with him, and Ed's friend Dennis came over to play guitar and hang out with us on Saturday night. And we capped the weekend off right, with a trip to Union Square, a visit to one of my favorite bookstores (Strand), and my first trip to Eataly.

Eataly is owned by celebrity chef Mario Batali. Ed and I very much enjoyed his restaurant Babbo, and I'd heard wonderful things about Eataly. It's a huge space that's part market and part restaurant. They carry/serve lots of wonderful products that are made in Italy (candies, olive oils, smoked meats, etc.) but they also make a lot of things in-house. In addition, they have a produce section, meat and seafood counters, a huge cheese selection... The list goes on and on. 

Various filled pastas

Ed and I decided we wanted to make pasta. We entered the store and found ourselves in the coffee and dessert section, where we were impressed by all the beautiful pastries and cakes, lorded over by a truly huge, sparkling silver espresso machine. We squeezed through the crowds to the pasta counter, where we hemmed and hawed over various noodles and fresh pastas. All of them are handmade in house, and looked wonderful. We eventually settled on squid ink pasta. I stayed in line to order it while Ed went off in search of sauce and came back with a jar of tantalizing vodka sauce. The man behind the counter handed us the pasta in paper wrapping just like at a deli counter in a supermarket.

Next stop: the seafood counter. There were several varieties of clams, some oysters, some lagostinas, and all kinds of fish, but Ed and I decided on some beautiful scallops. With our pasta in order, we conferenced about what else to have. My mom had sent me some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and bread dipping spices from a farm in California she visited, so we got a loaf of bread to go with them to make an appetizer. Though we chose a very basic baguette, the bakery counter had about 20 different kinds of bread to choose from, all in different shapes and all baked that day in Eataly's wood-fired oven. I figured we should have a salad, too, so I wandered, breathless, through the vegetable section. There were strange bean-like things mottled green and purple, snow white eggplants, all kinds of very red tomatoes (definitely not the flavorless kind that are picked green), and a huge variety of tiny vegetables like patty pan squashes and zucchini. I selected a lettuce mix, a bunch of basil, and some tender roma tomatoes.

The edge of the produce section

Ed took charge of selecting some fresh, house-made mozzarella for the salad, which came in a giant ball submerged in whey. The cheese counter bordered one of the many "restaurants" in Eataly. Each one is specialized, so you can only eat one type of thing there. They've got an area for pizza, an area for pasta, etc. In most places you sit at tables, but I saw some people sitting at counters around small kitchens, watching chefs busily cooking up their orders. Apparently the steak restaurant is one of the best in the whole place. Ed has eaten there and says the food is fantastic, and I'm not surprised. I'll certainly jump at the next excuse to go back and try it.

A handsome man selecting cheese. Note the hanging meats in the background!

In addition to the restaurants, there's an area where you can stand at tall tables and eat cheese and drink wine that you buy from the counters. You can even browse the store with a glass of wine in hand! That's my kind of shopping experience. Rumor has it that there's a Biergarten (not terribly Italian, but still very cool) on the roof, where house-made beer is sold. You can purchase some of the many pre-made or made-to-order foods from the counters and bring it up to the top to make your beer run into a meal.

Wine and cheese tables

We got in line to check out, and I was pleasantly surprised by the price. We bought a huge amount of fresh, gourmet pasta, fresh scallops, delicious sauce, salad makings, a giant ball of fresh mozzarella, fresh bread, and two sodas and paid about $45. It certainly wasn't pennies, but in a city where people will pay exorbitant amounts of money for anything they think is high quality, I thought it was quite a bargain. The resulting meal took about 30 minutes to make (about 18 of that was spent waiting for the water to boil) and it was just as good as a restaurant meal would have been. We even have leftovers!

Our "homemade" meal: squid ink pasta, jarred vodka sauce, and sauteed scallops

Eataly is just blocks from our apartment. I can't believe it's taken me as long as it has to get there for the first time, but now that I've discovered it I have a feeling I will be back frequently!