On January 27, 2007, Oscar Farinetti opened the first Eataly in Torino, Italy, with the idea that it would be much more than a store. He wanted to create a school, a market, a table to gather around: a place to learn about food and, through food, about life.
Fifteen (!) years later, there are over 40 locations across the world, from New York City to Milano to Dubai. While each store follows the original philosophy of being a place where people can eat, shop, and learn about good food, each is completely unique. Before Oscar opened Eataly Torino, he traveled across Italy’s 20 regions to find the best local producers who follow our Slow Food partner’s qualifications for food that is good, clean, and fair.
We still work with these Italian producers, bringing you Afeltra’s bronze-extruded, air-dried pasta from southern Gragnano and Niasca Portofino’s freshly-jarred pesto Genovese from northern Liguria. In the same vein, when we open each new Eataly, our team of buyers travels around the area to find the best local producers, like 1871 Dairy in Chicago or Ronnybrook in New York. The mozzarella in Chicago, produced by cows that roam the Illinois countryside, tastes differently than that of the Hudson Valley.
Just as our Italian producers unite us, our local producers make us unique.
And yes, you can swing by our market for a glass of wine and a bite before picking up a few tomatoes, a piece of cheese, and a loaf of bread for a simple and delicious dinner – but you can also learn how those tomatoes were grown, explore the history of an Italian region through its cheese, and stop to appreciate the smell of baking bread made with our time-honored natural mother yeast.
More than a market, Eataly has become an experience. Just as Oscar had intended, it is a place where you can eat, shop, and learn.