I have now visited the new "Eataly" complex in Manhattan, across from the Flat Iron building and Madison Square Park. It is about a block and a half from where I often stay when here.
This is clearly going to be a vast and churning money machine.
I have been in the place several times, and at all hours the aisles and places to sit and eat have been jammed, even fairly late.
You can buy finished products for immediate consumption, such as ice cream, and slices of goodies, or glaces of wines with more goodies, and also packaged products and raw materials for cooking in your own kitchen.
I may need to go tomorrow and pick up some cockles and mussels for a set to in the rectory. Yum.
Working with salmon roe.
The fresh pasta looks quite good.
I will also be looking for squid ink.
There are banks and banks of dry pastas.
There is a very good meat counter.
And people enjoying one of the cafe/restaurants.
The produce looks stupendous.
I haven’t tried anything yet of the salumeria. The bread seems to be spectacular.
The wines are, from a glance, undistinguished but useful.
My impression of a great deal of the packaged goods and products is, how to say, "corporate". I haven’t seen them in my usual groceries in Rome. The whole place throbs with a "corporate" feel. I am guessing the organizers approached or were approached by various large food concerns (Barilla comes to mind) who packaged products for the enterprise. This doesn’t mean that it is of second quality, of course.
Put it this way. It is far to large and uniform to be anything like a real Italian market. However, this is New York City. Having the immediate availability of all these things nearby would be a great advantage.
I think the idea is this: you can sample myriad things and then also, on the spot, buy everything you would need to make it at home. This would be a great place to start getting familiar with Italian staples.
Also, this would be a great place to meet people. I wonder if a blognic would work here. Hmmm.
And it is HUGE, and filled with fascinating and fascinated people. It has a great feeling. You could have a lot of fun here.
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Purple artichokes? Squid ink? Ohhh dear, my food experience is not that wide ranging, I’m afraid. Enjoy those cockels and mussels, hope they’re alive a-live O! (Couldn’t resist.)
Enjoy your time in NYC, Father. Will you get a chance to visit the Ground Zero area? I understand the rebuilding effort is moving along a bit better.
Why, o why, does my Firefox decide every now and then NOT to load the images on your blog? This is such a nuisance.
FWIW — I’m using FF 3.6.8 (Windoze Vista) and the images in this post are loading fine.
oh!!! [whimper] everything looks wonderful. I wish somebody in the Northern VA area had even half a taste bud. oh for real food purveyors here.
Reminds me of the Pittsburgh area’s Giant Eagle “Market District” stores. Corporate machinery trying—and pretty much succeeding—to create the feel of a smaller-scale, specialized market. Lots of imported goods, try-it-and-buy-it stations, that sort of thing.
As for the images loading, Jeffrey Pinyan, I have the same problem with them not loading right away (Chrome 6 on Win Vista). Usually I refresh the page and the images come right up.
I don’t see any romanesco cauliflower… a pity…
Mangia bene!
Haven’t been to Eataly—I confess I was terribly put off by the name, but perhaps I ought to swallow hard and go. Have you been to Buon’Italia at the Chelsea Market? Also, I understand that if you don’t mind a trek up to the Bronx, that there are quite a lot of small purveyors of Italian foods on and near Arthur Avenue. See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/nyregion/19stop.html and http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/travel/03weekend.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/28/dining/arthur-avenue-a-big-bite-of-italy-and-old-new-york.html?pagewanted=all. How was Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte? Hope you enjoy your stay!
Yes, Arthur Ave. is the best place to buy “real” Italian stuff. My cousin takes relatives there to buy anything Italian that you can’t buy in Texas or anywhere else. And if you want real Italian cookies then you must go to the Bronx (Givan Ave.) to Golden Glow cookies. The best cookies and canoli in the city.
Good Morning Fr.Z
Eataly just opened last week,
it is the newest food venture
of chef Mario Batali and Lidia
Bastianich both excellent cooks
and NYC restauranteurs.Enjoy.
Sounds like Eatzi’s in Dallas, but with more Italian offerings. Given the information in Wayne NYC’s post above, that makes plenty of sense.
‘salmon roe’ and ‘squid ink pasta’-EWWWWW.
That said….wow, that’s quite the place, Father Z! Are you going to take anything from there home with you?
The pictures are making me hungry!
If I can’t find colatura at Eataly, the whole venture will fall several notches in my estimation.
I can for sure get it at Chelsea Market.
Update to come.
How about organizing an opera sing-out there?
Tune garum tibimet conficere potes?
Supertradmum-I love your suggestion! An ‘opera sing-along’ would be very cool!
Oops-I meant, ‘opera SING-OUT’.
Another instance of ‘read before posting’….sigh…