New Yorkers don’t like to stand in line. Nor are we much for mega-stores. Yet there we were, countless times, waiting on Broadway and 24th to get into Eataly, the New York branch of Oscar Farinetti’s Turin food hall. Opened in collaboration with the Batali-Bastianich Hospitality Group, the place is immense: 50,000 square feet and packed with options. Power lunchers can head to the steakhouse-within-the-store, Manzo, which serves up meat from celebrity purveyor Pat LaFrieda and Northern Italian reds to go with it; the simply hungry but discerning can grab a glass of Prosecco and some mozzarella made that minute, or crudo courtesy of Dave Pasternack, the fish guru who runs Esca. The panini are fast, hot and filled with top-notch salumi and Italian cheese; the pizza is Neapolitan-style, thin and well charred. And the pistachio gelato is, perhaps, the best reason to ever wait on line.
200 5th Ave. (btw. 23rd & 24th Sts.), New York, NY
Italian
646-398-5100
is W&S’s editor at large and covers the wines of the Mediterranean and Central and Eastern Europe for the magazine.
This story appears in the print issue of April 2011.
Like what you read? Subscribe today.