Eating My Way Through NYC -Day 2

The big meal of the day was definitely at Eataly, the Mario Batali project on 23rd and 5th. This place is eatery combo food and kitchen wares market. The thread that holds it all together is Italy.

There are 3 different sit down spots within Eataly. All 3 have their own seating and hostess. They are veggies, seafood, pizza/pasta. Additionally there are the following other spots- raw bar, wine bar, salumaria (ass't cured meats, salami being one of them), rotisserie chicken, gelataria, coffee bar, dessert bar and sandwich bar. These spots had limited seating and in some areas people were just milling about standing and noshing on a plate of cured meats and cheese whilst balancing a glass of wine.

Eataly also sports a scratch bakery, butcher, seafood bar, produce and other staples like milk and eggs.

While waiting for our table I spent some time looking around. So many types of pasta-lasagna noodles at least a foot long, all manner of cork screw and curly q's and everything in between. Barilla pasta is a major sponsor of this venture and their product was prominent. However there were at 20 varieties of Barilla Regionals all of which were new to me. Also many types of sauces, pesto's, jams, oils, and exquisite balsamic vinegars and balsamic reductions/creams that i must try.

I won't spend much time discussing the other offerings, but if it was Italian they had at least 5 varieties of it!

We ate in the pizza/pasta area. Our waiter was fantastic. Despite how busy they were food came quickly and was freshly made. We decided to split lasagna al forno ragu and margarita pizza. The lasagna was at least 10 delicate layers of pasta with an amazing meat sauce between each layer and just enough grated cheese to give it some contrasting sharp flavor. This was not your standard heavy ricotta dish. It was light and yes I will say it again, delicate. The pizza came out screaming hot. San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh mozzerella and fresh basil on the thin crisp crust. It was exactly how I like my pizza. The sauce was slightly sweet but very tomato fkavored. The basil made it all pop.

We grabbed Zoe a gelato on the way out. She picked vanilla, and it was very good. Not the best one I have ever had but quite good.

We went on Friday night. It was beyond packed. I heard it was pretty packed on a Thursday afternoon too though. My only complaint was that I was required to keep checking in with the hostess to see if our table was ready. As unNew York as it is a buzzer would have been better. I could have kept exploring and not worrying about my table. That aside I do recommend!