BTW, anyone know if they have a rooftop space for summer? A friend took me to the rooftop restaurant at Eataly NY ( I think it's the beer oriented one) and that was lovely. I'd go all the time when the weather warms if so!

Oh, and on stale bread - I though the loaves out on the floor felt - while not stale, not quite as fresh as expected - but the ones at the actual bread counter were just out of the oven.

jordanhojo wrote: The lasagne (meat) was extremely surprising, as I wasn't expecting much but found this to also be much less tomato-forward and included very good pieces of meat and a good bechamel vs. cheap, gloppy ricotta that you find elsewhere.

I know one of the managers, and he recommended the lasagne - "The closest I've ever had to what my mother makes." (Such a classic Italian line!) I was totally surprised by the dish, and in the same good way you were. Would repeat.
Another surprise was the simple penne with tomato. My older daughter had that last night, and she could not stop raving about it…and she is a super-picky eater. I think the whole simple, less-is-more approach paid off for her - it wasn't buried in sauce, so she liked the taste of everything. She also wanted one of those $100 Alessi cheese graters….

I would likewise like to see pastas available at one of the five other restaurant stations. The texting when your table is ready is great! But it's really a weakness that everyone has to wait an hour for the pizza/pasta restaurant while others have open tables. It just doesn't make business sense to leave real estate that could be producing revenue unused.

On the plus side, they are starting to have weekly specials, including this week the fresh tagliatelle which was like $4.50 a pound instead of $7.95. When you hit the cheese/meat counter at a quiet moment, you'll get plenty of samples too, which is great.

Three visits so far and happy at all three. It's still always crowded, but as long as you know that going in, no big deal.

jordanhojo wrote:Although the crust is delicious, I found the pizza to be extremely soggy, caused by a combination of things, with the excessive use of olive oil drizzled over the top the primary culprit. Great ingredients, poor execution.

My understanding is that they're going for authentic Neapolitan, where the crust gets wetter/soggier towards the middle. It's not my personal favorite style, but I believe that's the exact style they're going for. They used to do that more at Spacca Napoli although at some point SN transitioned to pizzas that are far less wet in the middle.

BR wrote:

jordanhojo wrote:Although the crust is delicious, I found the pizza to be extremely soggy, caused by a combination of things, with the excessive use of olive oil drizzled over the top the primary culprit. Great ingredients, poor execution.

My understanding is that they're going for authentic Neapolitan, where the crust gets wetter/soggier towards the middle. It's not my personal favorite style, but I believe that's the exact style they're going for. They used to do that more at Spacca Napoli although at some point SN transitioned to pizzas that are far less wet in the middle.

I've heard from a couple of other folks that pizzas were soggy throughout, not just in their centers. Give them time, I guess.

I found Eataly to be remarkably annoying and I was there when it was fairly empty, at about 7 pm on a Monday evening.

I'm sure shopping can be fine. I found it an overwhelming, stressful branding gang-bang that felt pasteurized, soulless and insincere. I know that many of the items on the shelves and in the cases are of good quality but prices were high and it would take a great deal of costly trial and error to learn what's great and what isn't. Conversely, at a place like J.P. Graziano, for example, I know the proprietor, trust him and know that if it's in his shop, an item has been suitably curated. With 'feel good' billboards touting self-created brands throughout the shopping area at Eataly, it felt the exactly opposite. Totally impersonal. Additionally, produce was abysmal and I don't see how on earth they're going to move some of that inventory (salumi, cheeses) before it expires.

I ate at 2 of the foodcourt eateries upstairs: Verdure and Carne. Verdure was the better of the 2. I liked the 3 dishes we had but the bill for those and a round of tap water came to $48 before tax and tip. Ouch! I also didn't appreciate our server trying to upsell us on the $44/bottle balsamic vinegar that adorned one of the dishes we ordered.

At Carne we had 4 dishes. 1 was great -- the Cotechino. A lamb shoulder steak was tasty enough. Beef hearts were overly chewy and lifeless. A poorly cooked strip steak was virtually devoid of flavor. It was seared on only one side and was not allowed to rest long enough before it was served. Fail.

I think the overall set-up is lousy, too. It's really hard, if possible at all, for a group of people to get food from the different upstairs eateries and then all eat together. I know there's a pen for eating food from the upstairs grocery counters. I know this because it was pointed out to me by a manager-type while my companions and I snacked on some prosciutto I'd picked up while waiting for our dishes to arrive at Verdure. I got a brief lecture on how they don't typically allow that but they would in this case. I'd offered to pay for the $8 of prosciutto at the counter where I got it and also again when the manager spoke to us, but neither of those were options. Instead, I was told to keep the sticker from the butcher paper and make sure to pay for it downstairs when I left. I assured the manager that I was an honorable person, while thinking how incredibly short-sighted it was that customers were expected to go all the way downstairs to pay for such items.

I can see making a special trip for an ingredient that I might not find anywhere else but I cannot imagine making this a regular stop. In fact, given the location and the parking situation, I'd find it fairly surprising if anyone who doesn't live or work in the immediate vicinity stopped in here on a regular basis for anything.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:I'm sure shopping can be fine. I found it an overwhelming, stressful branding gang-bang that felt pasteurized, soulless and insincere. I know that many of the items on the shelves and in the cases are of good quality but prices were high and it would take a great deal of costly trial and error to learn what's great and what isn't. Conversely, at a place like J.P. Graziano, for example, I know the proprietor, trust him and know that if it's in his shop, an item has been suitably curated.

This is unfortunately how I feel. With the Italian mom and pop shops along North Avenue and Harlem, along with places like Caputo's and Freddy's in the Oak Park-Cicero-River Forrest area I'm struggling to figure out why I would slog downtown.
To me the entire point of good Italian food is knowing the people you're doing business with and developing a trusting relationship that ensures you're getting quality products at a fair price. I'm not going to tell anyone they must do as I do, but for the life of me I can't understand why I would want to shop at what is basically the Nieman Marcus (aka Needless Markup) boutique version of what I already have right outside my door.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I found Eataly to be remarkably annoying and I was there when it was fairly empty, at about 7 pm on a Monday evening.

I'd offered to pay for the $8 of prosciutto at the counter where I got it and also again when the manager spoke to us, but neither of those were options. Instead, I was told to keep the sticker from the butcher paper and make sure to pay for it downstairs when I left. I assured the manager that I was an honorable person, while thinking how incredibly short-sighted it was that customers were expected to go all the way downstairs to pay for such items.

I can see making a special trip for an ingredient that I might not find anywhere else but I cannot imagine making this a regular stop. In fact, given the location and the parking situation, I'd find it fairly surprising if anyone who doesn't live or work in the immediate vicinity stopped in here on a regular basis for anything.

=R=

I had time left on my meter at Fort Dearborn last Friday so I took a brief jaunt inside. I think the focaccia is quote squishy but delicious. But I also ordered the olive bread at the adjoining station and while I could pay for the focaccia right there I would have to go downstairs and stand in line to pay for the bread. I don't understand that. I decided I did not want to stand in line for bread. I went home and made bread.

ronnie_suburban wrote:
Conversely, at a place like J.P. Graziano, for example, I know the proprietor, trust him and know that if it's in his shop, an item has been suitably curated.

I live right down the street from JPG and go there quite often. If I were going to buy dried pasta, I'd pick up the Nellcote pasta they carry there, as I've found it to be quite good. But, they don't carry fresh pasta, so can see myself going to Eataly for that fresh pasta. To be honest, aside from maybe buying fresh pasta or , to a lesser extent, olive oil, I wouldn't go to Eataly for anything specific aside from the restaurants or the vibe, if I'm in the mood for someplace crazy busy (which, strangely, I sometimes want). But for salumi, with JPG, West Loop Salumi, and the fact that I can buy La Quercia virtually anywhere anymore, I wouldn't make a special trip to Eataly. For bread, I'd grab something from Little Goat or Pastoral. My butchered meat and eggs come from Olympia. Veggies from Mariano's or Whole Foods seem just as good as at Eataly.

Your point is very well taken, and I think you'll get a general consensus that aligns with it. I certainly agree.

RE: the pizza - I am familiar with the fact that this style of pizza is generally soggy in the middle, but this was soupy. Not anything like I get from di Nella, del Mercato, etc. It's just too much liquid, and I suspect they'll need to fix it. The table next to me resorted to knife and forking the toppings and ignoring the crust altogether after their attempts to pick up their slices failed.

jordanhojo wrote:To be honest, aside from maybe buying fresh pasta or , to a lesser extent, olive oil, I wouldn't go to Eataly for anything specific aside from the restaurants or the vibe, if I'm in the mood for someplace crazy busy (which, strangely, I sometimes want).

After several visits, I completely agree with you, but I'd add in the occasional visit to the meat counter for something special and especially expensive (although I got a great deal on prime dry aged ribeyes right after they opened).

The extremely high quality of the aged prime ribeye or standing rib roast is alone reason enough to go.

I've had the pizza now three times. The first time, it was exceptional--not wet or soggy. The second time, wet soggy mess--fail. I sent it back and they made another which was to perfection. Third time, exceptional again, not wet or soggy.

My husband brought home some items from Eataly for dinner tonight. He also agrees that the set-up is awkward. We had goat cheese agnolotti, which was decent but not great. The goat cheese had a good flavor, but the texture was a little grainy. The pasta was very good though, not gummy at all. The (sauteed? steamed?) broccoli rabe with lemon, garlic, and fresno peppers was inedibly salty. I would like to go at least once though to try the food for eating in.

Eataly blood orange on the right, Strack's (Elston store) on the left. Can't recall exactly but cost was relatively close. There, the resemblance ends.

boudreaulicious wrote:Eataly blood orange on the right, Strack's (Elston store) on the left. Can't recall exactly but cost was relatively close. There, the resemblance ends.

Even in the Sunkist Moro "blood oranges" I've noticed a wide degree of variation, from grapefruit pink to deep violet. The darker colored ones tend to be softer, and have a lot of blush on the rind. It might be ripeness, it might be genetic variation, I don't know.

Flavor was completely void of the blood orange tartness and robustness as well. I purchased 4 from each. All of the Eataly oranges were pretty much the same.

JoelF wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:Eataly blood orange on the right, Strack's (Elston store) on the left. Can't recall exactly but cost was relatively close. There, the resemblance ends.

Even in the Sunkist Moro "blood oranges" I've noticed a wide degree of variation, from grapefruit pink to deep violet. The darker colored ones tend to be softer, and have a lot of blush on the rind. It might be ripeness, it might be genetic variation, I don't know.

The variation in blood oranges is mostly environmental-- color in blood oranges depends on cold temperature regulating the gene producing the anthocyanin pigment:
http://my.aspb.org/blogpost/700954/1402 ... ood-Orange

I went to Eataly for the second time to have lunch. I would agree with all here that the prices aren't exactly low -- but I think this place is more about special occasion and experience than it is about everyday shopping. Although that can certainly be done. I'd rather have an Eataly in town as an option than not have one.

The food for lunch was really delicious. We went early and had only a 5 minute wait (11:45, i think) and we shared two pastas- - the lasagne and the bucatini al' amatriciana. Both were really, really yummy -- and the lasagne was just phenomenal. We enjoyed an overpriced glass of prosecco which was almost as much as the bottle cost in the wine shop, and we had a nice little cheese plate that hit the spot. I didn't much care for the space age plastic chairs but then again, I have a more ample behind than some. The service was great and friendly and it was bustling and fun to sit there.

I would not do this every day but once in awhile -- it will be a treat.

At any rate -- I think people who love food should check it out. You might not find it to be to your tastes but I thought it was a good time. I couldn't bring myself to spend $8 for a chocolate bar though. <grin>

boudreaulicious wrote:Flavor was completely void of the blood orange tartness and robustness as well. I purchased 4 from each. All of the Eataly oranges were pretty much the same.

Are you saying that both blood oranges had no flavor?

I am not. The Strack orange was fantastic.

ronnie_suburban wrote:
I found Eataly to be remarkably annoying and I was there when it was fairly empty, at about 7 pm on a Monday evening.

I'm sure shopping can be fine. I found it an overwhelming, stressful branding gang-bang that felt pasteurized, soulless and insincere. I know that many of the items on the shelves and in the cases are of good quality but prices were high and it would take a great deal of costly trial and error to learn what's great and what isn't. Conversely, at a place like J.P. Graziano, for example, I know the proprietor, trust him and know that if it's in his shop, an item has been suitably curated. With 'feel good' billboards touting self-created brands throughout the shopping area at Eataly, it felt the exactly opposite. Totally impersonal. Additionally, produce was abysmal and I don't see how on earth they're going to move some of that inventory (salumi, cheeses) before it expires.

I found Eataly to be remarkably like Las Vegas. Given that I like Las Vegas, my overall impressions were no where this negative. On the other hand, I don't entirely disagree with some of the words expressed above. Like Vegas, you can feel overwhelmed, stressed, soul-less and insincere. Still, as in Vegas, sometimes it works!

I cannot say I walked away from Eataly wholly impressed. In fact, due to the overwhelming, stressful habitat there, I baled before getting a really good understanding of the place. Unlike Ceasar's Palace, one cannot go up to their room for a little respite. I agree given choice after choice of brands and products I've never seen, how do I know which to buy, especially as there seems to be a pretty direct correlation between products I don't know and price. Yet, to compare this place to neighborhood stores like Bari or Riv makes little sense.

For one thing, the volume and selection makes the comparisons daft. More importantly, I'm mostly comparing on things I know, not on the 1,000's of products at Eataly I don't know. The cheese sections was not as great as Standard in Westmont, but it was very, very good, with many examples of our outstanding local cheeses. On a related front, the LeClaire goat's milk was cheap enough that my wife's inspired to make me cajeta. The salume were nearly all from above quality producers like Quercia and Smoking Goose. The packaged, sliced trays were not absurdly priced for what they were. The bread we brought home fits well into the bread renaissance we've had in Chicago but at no where near the price off, say Little Goat.

That was the good. What surprised me, or really did not because I really expected nothing, was the produce. Still, it was of high prices and poor quality. I know it's the dead of winter, but I've been to several area farmer's markets in recent weeks, and I know you can still do some cool things with roots, variations of potatoes, way better apples... From the produce, to what I saw in the fish, made me think of Fox and Obel, and I fear that Earaly will fall prey to a similar management directive that failed F&O. That is, a drive that each section pull it's weight or produce profits. What I had read about the seafood and what I saw last night were pretty different. It was nearly all fillets yesterday, and not impressive ones and that. In this area, Eataly did not pass favorably compared to some place near Harlem or for sure not Super H or Fresh Farms. Clearly, the lack of sales in fish is driving things. I bet the same thing will happen soon in meat. My wish for these kind of places is to maintain a true Euro quality inventory of meat, fish and produce and just chalk it off to ambiance. Profit can surely be found elsewhere.

I only ate one thing in house and that was the gelato. It was probably the best gelato I've had in Chicago. Don't believe me. Just compare Eataly's pistachio to any other pistachio at places selling gelato in Chicagoland. One tasted of nuts, with a full range of flavors, including bitter. The other will taste like pistachio "flavor."

It's a cool place. Just like you don't go to the State Street Marshall Field's to do your regular shopping, you don't necessarily go to Eataly every day. When there, until overwhelmed, you can find some good stuff.

I don't think Eataly intends for anyone to really buy produce there. It's available when you need it in a pinch, but expensive. I think they put it right upfront at the entrance to convey a sense of freshness, to market the "we cook what we sell" angle, and because it's visually appealing to walk into a store full of bright colors. I've had this argument running with a friend of mine since they opened. I'd be very surprised if they really intend for that section to be as heavily shopped as say, the pasta.

I think you would really have to know what their philosophy is. From my store owner perspective, front of the house floor space is really valuable, it is what you are paying the big rent for. Anything we put out is firmly with the intention to sell it. Also, products that need to be out there are ones that don't get blended into anything else. Freeze dried corn or crystallized ginger, would be two examples of products that are not used in our seasoning blends.

I was at Eataly today and bought several things at the fish area. They had a lot of whole fresh fish (hence, I'm not sure I understand your comment that most of the selection was "filets")....that certainly was not the case when I was there today around 2pm.

The dreadful produce that greets you when you enter Eataly is such a weird misstep for what is clearly a hyper analyzed and formatted store. And while some of the fruits might be ok, seeing wilted lettuce each of my three visits makes me question the quality of the offerings overall - big mistake.

But I do love the gelato ... and that prime rib sandwich (but you cannot buy that or the rotisserie sandwich of the day after 5PM even though they still staff that station and sell the meat of the day until closing - why is that?)

If it has already been mentioned I apologize, but just noticed while scanning Seatme that four of the Eataly restaurants (Carne, Pesce, Verdure, and Baffo) have reservations available on this site. It had been my understanding that only Baffo accepted reservations, so this was a surprise to me.

Also, to the moderators or others: Any thought to Eataly appearing in both the "Eating Out" and "Shopping & Cooking" boards, or moving to S&C? Perhaps part of the beauty of Eataly is it is many things and transcends traditional boundaries, but it did occur to me that many of the posts are more about the shopping than eating aspects.

Smassey wrote:Also, to the moderators or others: Any thought to Eataly appearing in both the "Eating Out" and "Shopping & Cooking" boards, or moving to S&C? Perhaps part of the beauty of Eataly is it is many things and transcends traditional boundaries, but it did occur to me that many of the posts are more about the shopping than eating aspects.

There's no way to have a thread appear on 2 separate forum indexes at once. Even if it appeared in both forums, it would still only appear on the thread index once. So moving it and leaving a shadow topic wouldn't accomplish much, and would likely lead to some confusion. And we really don't want to go through this thread, pick it apart and destroy a cohesive discussion.

My best suggestion is that anyone who would like to talk strictly about the shopping at Eataly -- and doesn't want to post it in this thread -- should start a new thread in S&C with the words Eataly and Shopping in the subject line.

Thanks,

=R=
for the Moderators

Might someone respectfully suggest that at this point in space and time - Chicago, depth of winter - it might be reasonable to hold off on condemning any relatively new - e.g., opened December or so - grocery/deli/food mart on the specific basis of its produce department?

I don't think anyone is condemning based on the produce ... some are based on other things.

While clearly winter is not the time for great local produce in Chicago, is that an excuse for a wilted lettuce display three weeks in a row?

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Smassey wrote:Also, to the moderators or others: Any thought to Eataly appearing in both the "Eating Out" and "Shopping & Cooking" boards, or moving to S&C? Perhaps part of the beauty of Eataly is it is many things and transcends traditional boundaries, but it did occur to me that many of the posts are more about the shopping than eating aspects.

There's no way to have a thread appear on 2 separate forum indexes at once. Even if it appeared in both forums, it would still only appear on the thread index once. So moving it and leaving a shadow topic wouldn't accomplish much, and would likely lead to some confusion. And we really don't want to go through this thread, pick it apart and destroy a cohesive discussion.

My best suggestion is that anyone who would like to talk strictly about the shopping at Eataly -- and doesn't want to post it in this thread -- should start a new thread in S&C with the words Eataly and Shopping in the subject line.

Thanks,

=R=
for the Moderators

Thank you, Ronnie. As I'm relatively new to LTH, that's the clarification I wanted. Despite following a couple of years and reading the Site Chat, it is informative to know how these decisions are made and where posts should go. It is interesting to me that most of the comments thus far are about layout, produce, general concept, and the like.

Smassey wrote:Thank you, Ronnie. As I'm relatively new to LTH, that's the clarification I wanted. Despite following a couple of years and reading the Site Chat, it is informative to know how these decisions are made and where posts should go. It is interesting to me that most of the comments thus far are about layout, produce, general concept, and the like.

No problem. We appreciate the suggestions and feedback, and do what we can to make the resource that is LTHForum.com as easy to use as possible.

There is some precedent here for dual threads about a place. After Publican Quality Meats opened, 2 threads were started about a month apart from each other. The first resides in S&C. The second is in EOiC. Interestingly, at the moment, both threads have almost the exact same number of replies:

Publican Quality Meats

Eating at Publican Quality Meats

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zoid wrote:With the Italian mom and pop shops along North Avenue and Harlem, along with places like Caputo's and Freddy's in the Oak Park-Cicero-River Forrest area I'm struggling to figure out why I would slog downtown.

With a great high-quality Italian store right downtown offering a ton of outstanding options, I have no reason to slog out to the far reaches of North Avenue, let alone the Oak Park Cicero River Forest area! Hurray!!

Siun wrote:I don't think anyone is condemning based on the produce ... some are based on other things.

Yeah ... the parking.

Fortunately, the CTA parks its own buses, so I don't have that to worry about.