Tag Archives: iron chef

Mario Batali, in addition to being an Iron Chef and a restaurateur, just got into the retail grocery business with the opening of Eataly in New York City on September 1.   The place has been described as a “50,000-square-foot  Italian culinary funhouse” but Batali has called it “a temple” where “food is sacred.”  The space is brimming with (mostly Italian) imports located in their own individual retail departments, each offering the very best products available.

The produce department has a “vegetable butcher,” who will clean and prep produce for those short on time or skill.  As you’d expect, there’s a bakery, a fresh pasta counter, a butcher, a coffee bar—all very elaborate with extensive service offerings.  The space also houses a wine store, a bookstore, a cooking school (taught by Lidia Bastianich), and eleven restaurants, not to mention a forthcoming microbrewery.

Eataly is yet another example, albeit a very elaborate one, of how the lines between retail grocery and foodservice are being blurred.  It will be a legitimate destination, one that’s sure to provide unique competition to specialty shops, grocery stores, wine retailers, cooking schools and restaurants for hundreds of miles.

 Read more...