Eataly, Turin

On October 24, 2007, The New York Times reported that Eataly will soon be opening at 18 West 48^th Street in New York. So on October 31, Linda and I went to check out the original, which claims to be the “world’s biggest food and wine market.”

Conveniently it is located near our first destination of the day: the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli on top of a former Fiat factory in the Lingotto district of Turin converted into a shopping center and cinema complex. This micro museum houses twenty-five paintings from the Agnelli collection, including seven very good Matisses, a Modigliani and a number of Canalettos.

Eataly is in a converted vermouth factory next door.

  Our first surprise on entering Eataly was that we could check our email for free.  

 

The market is logically ordered into sections for different types of food, each of which has a counter-and-stool-style restaurant in that theme. This is also the format at the KDW foodhall in Berlin, which seemed a lot larger than Eataly to me. The Harrods foodhall also seems larger, although in quite a different style.  Guido per Eataly is an upscale restaurant near the wine section; the chef is Piero Alciati of a restaurant family well known in the region.

 

 

 

  

After a quick tour around we chose the fish restaurant and were lucky to find two seats.  (The huge fish in the 2nd photo is a grouper.) The menu offers as much bread and bottled water as you want for 1 € @. We only wanted a light lunch as we had eaten a lot at Belvedere the evening before and were looking forward to dinner at Flipot that evening.

 

Linda had the fish of the day, tuna with potatoes and a tomato. 

 

I had the gamberoni e scampi alla piastra, grilled big and little shrimp. We each had a glass of Arneis. 

 

 

We walked down to the coffee section where there are bins of freshly roasted beans and a packed standup coffee bar with incredibly good espresso. To Linda’s right you can see a stream of liquid chocolate; one can buy a tiny cup of it to go with the coffee.

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The bread, pasta and pizza section has a huge variety, including many different flours for those who make their  own. 

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There are truffles in season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The spiny artichokes are a northwestern Italy specialty. Thin slices are dressed in olive oil and served raw.

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The wine and water sections were about what I expected, but the variety of beers was amazing.

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Cheese, salami, ham, etc were all together in the same section. Eataly makes a big point of working with small regional producers, in consultation with Slow Food; that was most evident in this section.

www.eatalytorino.it