Your Guide to Eataly LA

You can find just about anything in California – culture, fashion, glitz, and definitely food. Los Angeles and San Francisco are two places where there are cuisines representing every country in the world, old and new, exotic and less so.

While Italian food is found routinely, Italian kitchen and culture meccas like Eataly - are not. This is why so many people celebrated when the new place opened in Los Angeles and why so many people are waiting for it in the Bay Area, slated to open in 2021.

Let’s start with Los Angeles location first. The Italian marketplace was opened in the Westfield Century City shopping mall and has been receiving lots of love ever since. It opened to huge crowds and long waiting in line just to get in and take a look around. It seems that people really waited for something like that to unite Italy and California under one huge roof.

What exactly is it about this place that has people waiting in lines for hours so much so that expected wait time had to be announced on Twitter?

The chain successfully operates 40 stores worldwide, with 6 of them in the United States and one more to open in San Francisco next year. As we all know it, Italy has universal appeal, but not all of us can travel there on a whim.

This place, Eataly, is like a little concentration of what’s best about Italy, without ancient buildings, of course, so we can visit without leaving the country.

Guests of this marketplace get to eat all kinds of fresh Italian food, enjoy cocktails, shop for Italian goods, see and smell local delicacies, mingle with other likeminded shoppers for hours, stroll through this huge 70,000 square feet space, and still feel California vibe – modern design, airy spaces, friendly service, and beautiful LA and Pacific views through every window.

Eataly reminds of Sur La Table a little bit, where you can also eat, shop, cook, and also mingle. Some of the merchandise can even be found in both places, for example pasta making machines and Italian charcuterie. Cooking classes are also available at both places.

Every ultimate Italy lover can get a little piece of heaven at Eataly because everything is either imported from Italy or has some other connection to it.  

You will find small batch olive oil, wines, huge cheese wheels, fresh mozzarella, hundreds of varieties of pasta, canned goods, marinated everything, meats, baskets, local produce, and fresh Pacific fish waiting for you.

If shopping makes you hungry, you can take a bite or a few at one of these four places:

• La Pizza La Pasta – the menu is pretty clear

• Il Pesce Cucina – seafood heaven Italian style

• Terra – 150 seats, some of them outside, on the roof for ultimate view enjoyment
• La Piazza – imagine Rome with street food counters, café, and a cooking school

If there is one place like that in Los Angeles, San Francisco can’t be left behind, especially given its own super colorful food scenery. Eataly Silicon Valley will open at Westfield Valley Fair in 2021. It plans to be a 51,000 square feet heaven with marketplace, restaurants, cafes, and bars. Just like everywhere else, expect to find pasta, pasta, and one more time pasta – dried and fresh.

Then your attention will be turned to cheese, pizzas, wines, olive oils, tableware, meats, fresh veggies, coffee, and thousand things more.

Eataly is wonderful for local economies because besides importing some essentials from Italy, like cheese and wine, many other Italy-inspired products come from local growers, and what better place for that than California?

The idea here will be to offer guests a place where they will shop, enjoy food, and learn how to make healthy fresh dishes from local fresh produce – something we don’t get to see and do anymore.

In addition to Eataly, the new Westfield Valley Fair location will have over 100 stores and restaurants after undergoing a total overhaul with a price tag of $1.1 billion. Needless to say, local foodies can’t wait for this Italian wonderland to open!