A trip to heaven - Eataly style

In going back through old posts, I realized that while I mentioned my excitement about visiting Eataly, I never told everyone how truly amazing it actually was.

Eataly, as previously mentioned, is the creation of Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. Located in Manhatten at the corner of 5^th Ave and 23^rd, it is easily a place to spend a day, and possibly your whole paycheck.

I’ll start with the fact you can drink wine while you shop.  Yup.  Pick any of the glasses off the amazing wine list, and meander around while sipping. Or, stop at the ‘cured meat and cheese’ bar and pair your glass with a delicious assortment of some of best things Italy has to offer. 

Or do both.  I did. 

After nibbling for about 20 minutes, I took my glass and perused the cheese section first.  Anyone that loves burrata will have found heaven.  This is where the first part of my paycheck could have gone.

Then I moved on to the gelato stand.  I can’t remember what flavor I choose, but I do know that it took about 10 minutes to make that decision and equally as long to savor each bite.

Next up was the meat counter, followed by the freshest seafood counter I have ever witnessed.  Duck, rabbit, fresh (crawling!) crawfish….you name it, they probably had it.  I spent a solid chunk of time salivating at the duck in the front of the window.  It was a thing of beauty.  Consider this the second third of my paycheck gone.

Then came the bread section.  More varieties that I can even remember, each one looking more delicious then the last.  How does one pick from multiple examples of perfection?

And then it was on to the pasta case.  Handmade pasta, made in house daily.  Stuffed pasta with some brilliant flavor combinations.  And this is where the rest of the hard earned money would have been spent.  

While I didn’t blow my entire check here, it’s easy to see how one could. 

As my friend and I headed back uptown to figure out where to eat dinner, we only got to about 35^th before we looked at each other, turned around and headed back to Eataly.

We decided to try the agnolotti dal plin, pasta stuffed with braised pork, veal and vegetables.  Picked up some nice Parmesan and some olive bread to go with it and headed off to the attached wine shop.  After settling on a barbara de asti, we headed back to my friends house to make dinner. 

I never thought that I’d pass up eating out in NYC, but I am so glad I did. 

I recently suggested that my friends Tiffany and Rob stop and check it out while in NYC.  The text that I got from her pretty much sums up the experience:

“I just entered heaven”.  Couldn’t have said it better myself.