Food Love + Italy = Eataly

So as I mentioned in my last post, I have recently started a new job in Torino, (thus the frequent Torino postings). I am excited about this because I have loved the city ever since the first time I visited over three years ago, and because my new job is pretty much located at my idea of heaven. Eataly.

Oh you clever Italians.

Describing Eataly is never an easy task because there is nothing to compare it to. Grocery store? Yes, but not like you know. Restaurant? Oh yes, that too. Perhaps it is easier just to take you on a tour.

The first thing you will notice as you enter is that Eataly is nothing like any grocery store you have visited before. The typical set-up of entering into the fruits and veggies, finding your dairy and meats along the periphery, and processed foods down the aisles doesn't exist here. There is no prescribed flow of traffic, silently herding you up and down, in and out. A Wendell Berry quote, proposing that, "eating is an agricultural act," greets you at the entrance and a huge fruit and vegetable wheel guides you in selecting your seasonal favorites. The concept of aisles is minimally applied here; rather the old vermouth factory has been converted into a sunny store, with an open, spacious design, complete with a vermouth museum on its top floor.

Besides the physical set up of the store, what sets it apart from any other grocery is what you are filling your basket with. The products here, as you probably guessed from its title, are Italian products, mainly produced by small artisan producers. The story goes that Eataly's founder and owner, Oscar Farinetti, was strolling through Salone del Gusto (Slow Food's food and wine fair) and thought to himself how great it would be if someone opened a store to sell all the amazing foods featured there. Then he realized that that someone could be him, and so we find ourselves some years later with stores popping up like weeds (the good ones, of course). The mother-ship is in Torino, but you can also find smaller shops in Milan, Bologna, Asti, and Pinerolo. Head east from Italy, you'll find several stores in Tokyo, head west and you will soon find one in New York City.

Rather than aisles, the store is laid out in sections: fruits and veggies, seafood, meat, cheese and cured meats, pastas, olive oils, preserved condiments, a bakery and an entire floor dedicated to wine and artisan beers. Each section has its own little restaurant featuring dishes made by the exact products you are buying. Genius.

Pick a bottle and fill it with your choice of good red or white wine for about 3 Euros

While Eataly could have easily become another specialty delicatessen with a limited elite market, the owners strategically prevented that by locating the store in a more industrial part of the city and keeping their prices competitive. Sure you will pay a bit more for your hand rolled pasta here than you would for a box of industrial stuff elsewhere, but with your tastier dinner comes a story of the producer you are supporting. That's what Eataly is all about: eating and drinking well, learning and supporting.

The more you know, the better it tastes.