Eataly’s Aug. 11 Downtown debut is one of the most anticipated culinary openings this year.
Celebrity chef and Eataly partner Mario Batali couldn’t resist snarfing down a snack at the high-end food mall’s preview event on Aug. 2.
BY COLIN MIXSON
Downtown’s restaurant renaissance is welcoming a new Italian addition on Aug. 11, when the long-awaited Tuscan-themed fusion of high-end dining and market-style shopping, Eataly, opens its doors at 4 World Trade Center.
The ritzy food mall will include 40,000 square feet of restaurants and food counters, where dishes are prepared using ingredients available for purchase at the Eataly market.
The Tuscan food Mecca will also employ teaching chefs for an on-site “cooking school,” where customers can get advice on the preparation of various dishes offered at Eataly eateries.
The first 100 customers to turn up at the foodie fun place, which opens its doors at noon on Aug. 11, will be awarded certificates entitling them to a tasting tour in September, according to a spokeswoman for the hodgepodge of Italian restaurants.
These nice racks were on display at the new Eataly’s Aug. 2 preview event.
The culinary braintrust behind the foodie playground expects Eataly’s newest venue to adapt to the neighborhood as the area continues changing.
“When Nicola Farinetti opened Eataly Flatiron in 2010, it changed the neighborhood and Manhattan,” said partner Joe Bastianich. “As Eataly opens Downtown, the opposite will happen, and the store will evolve as part of the rejuvenation of this part of the City.”
Eataly is one several restaurants opening throughout Downtown to serve to the tony neighborhood’s booming residential population, which will see more than 6,000 new residential units opening south of Canal Street by 2019.
In the coming months, Eataly will be joined by numerous classy dining joints helmed by celebrity chefs, including Tom Colicchio’s Fowler and Wells opening at the Beekman Hotel, among many more.
The big cheese showed for the preview event of Eataly’s new venture at 4 WTC.
