Jessi PereiraMake Your Trip To The New Giant, Gourmet Italian Wonderland Easier With This Handy-Dandy Grocery List Of Essentials For Any Meal.
A 46,000-square-foot Italian grocery store will open its doors inside of North Park Mall on December 9.
Eataly is not just a grocery store, though — deducing it to your neighborhood supermarket doesn’t do this massive foodie wonderland justice. The food hall houses three restaurants and a cooking school inside of it, not to mention a formaggeria (cheese store), macelleria (butcher’s shop), and a pasticceria (pastry store.)
Since its founding in 2010, Eataly has established itself all around the world with over 40 different locations. The United States proudly hosts six Eataly stores all over the map from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Las Vegas. The Dallas location will mark the eighth North American location and the first of its kind in Texas.
The place is huge and packed with so many varieties of all things Italian gourmet that it’s basically like the Disneyworld of Italian food.
Seriously, is there another place where you can get over 100 different types of olive oils? We didn’t even know they made that many. Okay, maybe they did, but to get them all under one roof is pretty much unheard of for us Dallasites who are very far away from “the boot.”
Where do you even start with Eataly’s olive oil selection.
Unless you’re a frequent home cook or someone’s Italian grandmother, olive oils might not excite you. Perhaps another overwhelming quantity that might interest you is the selection of 200 different kinds of cheese available for purchase. Oh, and if you’re looking for fresh mozzarella, this is the place to get it — it’s made fresh in-house every single day, just like the rows of fresh bread placed on the racks right across the formaggeria.
We understand that all of this can be overwhelming, but don’t worry — we’ve put together a nice little grocery list of the all things you need to try should you find yourself dazzled by this culinary utopia.
6. Brisket from the macelleria.
Wait, what? Brisket in an Italian shop? Yes, it’s real. Eataly will locally source its meats, including brisket from A Bar N Ranch, a local company just 40 minutes north in Celina. Of course, it won’t be cooked because that’s not very Italian, but it is smart to offer a meat adorned by Texans.
5. Fresh fish from the peschiera
If you’re not into red meats much, there’s an impressive option for the pescatarians out there. You can get whole or cuts of fish at the pescheria. The fish, just like the meats, are locally sourced as well.
4. Fresh cheese from the formagerria
What would Italian cuisine be without some good ol’ formaggio? For those of you who want to upgrade beyond stress eating string cheese sticks (nothing wrong with that, by the way), Eataly provides a plethora of options for doing just that. Seriously, there’s an entire wrap-around counter just filled with various cheeses representative of the northern and southern regions of Italy. If you want to get super local, the mozzarella is made fresh every single day with milk from local cows.
3. Score some fresh pasta from Il Pastaio
Remember the meme that’s like, “take your girl someplace where they make the food in front of her?” Okay, make your meme come true and go to Il Pastaio, a sit-at-the-counter pasta and wine bar — one of three restaurants inside of Eataly. At Il Pastaio, you can watch Chef Paola Saglietti prepare fresh pasta right before your eyes in front of a giant hovering mirror. There are no secrets, just pasta and vibes.
No time to sit and dine? Take fresh or packaged pasta home with you — there are so many options from the pasta at the fresh market counter or the hundreds of varietals from the dry grocery area.
No artificial cheese powder packets come with this, we checked.
2. Fresh bread
One thing about those Italians? They love bread. That’s not really a wholly encompassing observation considering that every culture has some form of bread in its diet, but Italians do thrive on it. Knowing this, Eataly purposefully serves every meal with an accompaniment of bread. There’s a method to the madness of making fresh bread 24/7.
1. Fried pizza from La Pasta & La Pizza.
Pizza fritta (left).
Y’all thought this list wasn’t going to include pizza?! Well, we saved the best for last. Step inside of La Pizza & La Pasta for a delicious pizza fritta or fried pizza — yes, fried pizza. This Neopolitan street food is topped with fresh tomato sauce, sprinkled cheese and a mint leaf. This delicious menu item tastes even better once you know it can only be enjoyed at the chain’s Dallas location, as no one Eataly restaurant is the same as the others. Pretty smart move considering that Texas has a very deep and serious relationship with pride and fried foods.