| Dear reader, Toronto has been blessed with a second location of Eataly, the everything-Italian emporium with an almost-four-year-old flagship at Bay and Bloor. The new food hall opens today at Sherway Gardens in what was once a Pickle Barrel, so (apologies to any PB fans) that’s a pretty big step up. We’re now one of only two cities in North America to have more than one Eataly, and by next year, we’ll have a third location when a store opens at the Shops at Don Mills. Even Rome only has one—one and a half, if you count the cafeteria-style Eataly in the airport, and I’m not going to. We waited a long time for Eataly. As far back as 2010, Toronto Life was on the Eataly beat, running a short piece online about how the brand’s founder, Oscar Farinetti, was in town scouting out potential spaces worthy of empire expansion. The rumour mill swirled, like a forkful of spaghetti, for almost a whole decade—Will we? Won’t we?—and then suddenly we had one, and it was spectacular. Shortly after it opened, I spent roughly 20 hours inside over the course of a week, getting material for this Survival Guide to Eataly—and lemme tell you, I wasn’t mad about it. Say what you will about big-box chains, Eataly is a good time. Anywhere you can walk around with a glass of Lambrusco while snacking on a slice of pizza and at least pretending to shop for things like truffles and fancy olive oil is a good time. The place is equal parts supermarket and free-admission museum, and people making fresh mozzarella will always hold my attention way longer than any dinosaur skeleton or wall of jellyfish. Also in today’s Table Talk: what’s on the menu at an Italian restaurant hidden inside a North York furniture store and the story behind a West Queen West Lao restaurant. |
