Went here on the Saturday before Xmas, subconsciously hoping for death by festive crowd, I suppose. It is a remarkable place. I couldn't help but wonder whether it will work out especially well long-term in part
because we have some local context, including Harlem Avenue (Caputo's, Riv's etc.), Grand Ave. (Bari, Coalfire, Damato's etc.), Fulton Market (PQM, West Loop Salumeria, Graziano's and all that), or whether Eataly exists in a different reality for tourists and River Northers, or some combination, which I know they say they want, but I wonder still.
For me the biggest and most promising truly "new" things are probably the seafood, which feels like a step up even from our best places within city limits right now, and the cheeses with their unique Italian leaning - or should I say dairy, given the selection of first rate imported butters. Fresh seafood all looked too good to be true, with many Mediterranean finfish and oddities like whelks, but also huge cans of salted sardines, a million anchovies, and packages of really good mullet bottarga, the last of which I picked up with some good oil and spaghettone for Xmas. The meats and charcuterie looked great, but nothing one can't get already around here that I saw. The prepared foods, including roasted meats, too, looked excellent. (But the porchetta at Eataly isn't in the same league as PQM. Not close.) Pasta selection is vast and deep, probably a few notches above Caputo's, but that's an easy trick with a giant store importing dry stuff. The gelato and coffee was nothing special, which says more about the state of ice cream and coffee in Chicago these days than anything bad about Eataly. Fruits and vegetables all looked fresh and spotless, with many mushroom varieties as noted above, but I would not say the small selection has anything over, say, Caputo's, Mariano's or Whole Foods.
We had a bite at the pizza/pasta place (no wait!) and everything was quite good. Most notably, the exemplary cacio e pepe. Pizza was solid with terrific cheese (house made mozz, I believe) and a simple, delicious passata on the margherita. The guys running the two enormous wood ovens are from Naples and are happy to chat about the old country and their new home. (They know and quite respect Spacca Napoli already, which I thought was cool.) Given the enormous volume of pies, I was impressed by what they turned out. But that same volume appears to have cooled down the deck, leaving the crust well charred on top but quite pale beneath.
Service went from clueless and disinterested to super-competent and smart. If you can find one of the young go-getters from Italy (hard to spot in jeans and sweaters, though you sort of can if you think "EU grad student"), you'll get all the answers you need.
In all, I can see myself back here a bit, but mostly for a bite to eat and a beer (the seafood and the frying set up makes me think fritto misto), and maybe one or two little things to take home. For real shopping I'll stick to the old places. I believe this is what the people behind Eataly are probably going for, anyway.
A fitting end to the day: driving away, west on Grand, my wife and kids lamented the lack of Italian Christmas cookies at Eataly (plenty of fancy trifles at the pastry counter and a good bakery making breads, but no basic cookies that I could find, at least not counting pre-packaged and shipped from Milan). Open parking in front of D'Amato's for a box of fig cookies, pignoli, amaretti, and lemon knots for Santa, a cannolo for my baby, and a slice of sausage, the edge black with lacy cheese, for me.