We loved Eataly in New York City on our first visit in August, 2012. A Disney-land for adults who love food, we loved the combination of restaurants, grocery store with high quality fresh food and packaged goods from Italy.
On follow-up visits to Eataly in New York City, and to the Eataly in Chicago, we still loved the mega-store-Italian-foods- emporium concept but we didn’t love the crowds that had discovered them.
The Eataly Milano Smeraldo in Milan, Italy.
When we visited Milan, Italy at the end of November, we were curious how the Eataly concept would fare in Italy. After all, while Eataly was founded in Italy and 10 of the chain’s 27 global locations are found within Italy. Still, Italians have many choices for Italian food, so do they go for the Eataly concept?
Since we finished our Milan Food Tour at the Princi bakery with its famous pan pizza, which is right across the street from the Eataly Milano Smeraldo, we decided that we had to check it out.
The 54,000+ sq. ft. flagship Eataly store opened in Milan in late March of 2014. The four-story food emporium is housed in a converted theater.
Inside there is a pizzeria (along with 13 other eating and drinking establishments) intermixed with a broad supply of all kinds of Italian ingredients to make your favorite Italian dishes at home.
Eataly Milan celebrates the food of the Lombardy region surrounding Milan, which is one of Italy’s most important regions for agriculture.
There are men selling prosciutto, salami and all kinds of cured meats.
You won’t find the prosciutto being sold in this fashion in the Chicago Eataly.
Another difference we noticed in the Milan Eataly: a performance stage that jutted out over several floors of the store. A little live music while you shop?
There are four floors of food fun to explore at Eataly Milan. It’s likely to be a hot destination for some of the anticipated 20 million visitors to Milan in 2015 for Expo Milano, which runs between May 1 and October 31, and is focused on the food theme of Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.
Have you visited an Eataly food emporium? Please share what location and your thoughts in comments below.
To learn more about our recent trip to Italy and San Marino, check out these posts:
- A Look Inside the Milan Hilton Hotel
- Dining at Ristorante Guido in Rimini, Italy
- A Look Inside the Best Western Hotel Nettunia in Rimini, Italy
- Visiting a New Country: San Marino
- 24 Fun Facts About San Marino
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