Eataly - Batali's New York Italian Marketplace Extravaganza

Batali's Eataly New York, the first US branch of the original in Turin, is impressive.  And apparently quite a hit.  I dropped in around 2:30 and by the time I wandered around getting my bearings and trying to decide what to eat, which admittedly took a long time since there is just so much stuff, all the restaurants had to shut down to prep for dinner service because they had gotten slammed and had run out of food.  They had originally planned to be open straight through, but their popularity on the second day got the best of them.

I had eventually decided to try out the daily selection of crudo and maybe some salmui since the crudo is not something I could grab for later when I received the sad news of the shut down.  But I persevered, despite my jealousy of the diners who got in under the wire, and got some stuff to make my feast at home:

The condimentos I grabbed really added to my meal, Strawberry Compote with Balsamic, Pears Mostarda, and Extra Red Onion Preserve.  There were plenty more that tempted me as well.  I also grabbed a jar of Passata for making pizza and a tub of righteous looking soaked cannellini beans for later.  Come to think of it, one thing I was hoping to find but don't remember seeing was some cured lardo.  I had meant to specifically look but forgot until just now, I'll have to investigate next time.

I grabbed two interesting looking sodas, and they were both awesome; I may already be addicted.  La Nostra Gazzosa is a great and refreshing lemon soda made with Amalfi Lemons. Even more to my liking was the Il Nostro Chinotto made with lemons and Ligurian's Riviera Chinotto as a bittering agent.  It tasted like a real Amaro, but a soda!  I don't know how this has evaded my view until now.  I wish I had this display at my place:

Of special note, at least to my wife and I, is that they serve Cacio e Pepe, her all time favorite pasta which we always get at Lupa.  I envision many future visits.

The grocery items as well as the butcher's counter and fishmonger also had good looking stuff, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Here's hoping this place is so successful they'll be forced to open another down in Tribeca next door to me.