Showing posts with label Eataly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eataly. Show all posts

10/25/10

Food, History, Food, Drinks & More Food

With Mom in town, the fun never stops. Not that I am much at a lack for things to do on my own, but I'm pretty sure every hour is booked up down to the minute when we hang out. After a gluttonous breakfast at The Breslin, we made our way downtown to my newest infatuation -- Eataly. Opened by Mario Batali and his business parter Joe Bastianich, Eataly is a whirlwind tour of all things that have anything to do with food and Italy and it's pretty much amazing. 



The market section has rows and rows of pasta shapes you've never heard of, olive oils enriched and flavored with herbs and spices and pasta sauces enough to supply your spaghetti habit for your entire life. Of course it's all available ready to jump into your shopping bag in exchange for lots and lots of money, but it's just so pretty to look at. 



With grocery offerings like fresh produce and a "vegetable butcher" to slice and dice your greens while you shop, handmade pasta cranked out while you watch, any kind of meat or fish you could ever want to cook as well as daily-made mozzarella, bread and other baked goods, Eataly is really a sanctuary for worshipping food. It also boasts sit-down restaurants, a central marketplace where you can sample wine and cheese plates, a gelato bar, panini stand and espresso bar. Even if you don't anticipate buying anything, I'd recommend a simple walk around the former toy-factory building and dropping your jaw at the selection of awesomeness. 

Next up, we ambled north for an Open House New York (OHNY) tour of Grand Central Terminal. OHNY is an annual weekend program where all sorts of buildings, architectural spaces and some residences are opened up for behind-the-scenes tours led by architects, designers and other influential "building" people. It's free to the public, but to get on the more desired tours, you need a reservation. I was lucky enough to score two spaces on the GCT tour but unfortunately didn't get on the Woolworth Building or the new World Trade Center Building tours - those went within 10 seconds of the reservations being available!


Two representatives from the Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, who completed the refurbishment in the 1990s, enlightened us with fun facts and history about the magnificent building. We learned about the "whispering corners" downstairs by the food court. Because of the vaulted ceilings in that section, when two people stand at opposite corners and whisper, the sound carries like the volume of a normal conversation. It's a little Harry Potter, but you have to find it and try it out for yourself. We also learned that after they cleaned up the thick black layer of gunk and grime from the beautiful sky-inspired mural on the ceiling and restored the building to it's former glory, a small patch of the original dirt was left to remind people of how bad it was left to get. If you look in the Southwest corner of the ceiling, you may be able to spot it!


The OHNY experience was great and I would recommend it to anyone interested in just about any building in the five boroughs. I also know they were doing tours of Diane von Furstenburg's studios in the Meatpacking and the Marble Cemetery in the East Village. I would have loved to do both, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art called.

My mom has been obsessed with the Met's roof garden since I told her about it two years ago. We made it up to see the tail end of Big Bambu on the roof. The drinks are pricey, but remember the Met's "suggested donation" policy and you don't really have to pay anything to get into the museum. So grab yourself a couple of drinks and consider that your donation to the arts. Big Bambu was quite the spectacle. Part of me wanted to go up Swiss Family Robinson-style, but it seemed a little rickety to make me feel totally safe about it. We hung out down below and enjoyed the miraculous views across the park and downtown as the sun set. Big Bambu is only on view through 10/31, so if you haven't seen it yet, make sure to go this week! 



Our last adventure of the day was a foodie one, back to my beloved Braeburn. Through Village Vines, we got 30% off our entire meal, and we were lucky enough to get there mere days after they switched over to their fall menu. Although I was bummed not to be able to get the Black Pepper Fettucine again, I was a very happy girl to ate what I ate.

We started with the Roasted Beet Salad with braeburn apples (of course), spicy walnuts and goat cheese fondue. I can help but be in love with the combination of beets and goat cheese. It's pretty much heaven. Next, I had the Breast of Long Island Duck with kohlrabi, wheat berries, duck confit and bing cherry sauce. This was a great fall dish. The warmth of the cherries and wheat berries mixed with the crispy duck confit was great and I wanted more when it was done. Lastly, my mom and my favorite candy bar is Almond Joy so we were thrilled to see a "deconstructed" version almond cake, coconut, dark chocolate and coconut squash sauce on the dessert menu. Although I'm pretty in love with the candy bar, this was a wonderful, more sophisticated version. All in all, it was great to finally eat an entire meal at this West Village gem and I can't wait to go back!

Roasted Beet Salad
Breast of Long Island Duck
"Almond Joy"

Sorry for the mish-mash of stuff in this post, but I just had to prove that my mom and I really can fit a lot into a single day :)

Eataly on Urbanspoon

Eataly on Urbanspoon

Braeburn on Urbanspoon

Awesome Reads

Awesome in New York New York restaurants

Awesome Keywords

art gallery art museum Astoria atlantic city awesome alert Awesome Deal awesome giveaway awesome savings bakeries bar bar crawl BBQ beach beauty beer beer event birthday Book Launch brazilian breakfast Broadway Brooklyn Brooklyn Bridge Brunch Bryant Park carnegie hall celebrity spotting Central Park cheap tickets cheese Chelsea Market Chinatown Chinese Food Choice Eats class cocktails coffee columbus circle concert concert in the park contest cookies cooking creativity crunch cuban dance Deals Delicatessen delivery designer clothing dessert. food dinner Dior discount spa treatments discounted tickets doughnuts Downtown drink specials drinks East Village Ebates Entertainment event exercise Facebook giveaway fashion film fitness Flatiron Flushing Meadows-Corona park Food Food event food truck free Free Champagne free coffee Free Concerts free cupcake free dessert free drinks free food free museum admission free stuff Free Ticket free wine French food fundraising gift Gilt City giveaway gourmet food store Grand Central Greek Greenwich Village Groupon Guggenheim Museum half marathon halloween health healthy living helicopter tour hell's kitchen historic site history holiday shopping hot chocolate Italian food jazz jazz club jewelry lincoln center local food Lombardi Long Island City Lower East Side lunch macaron Madison Square Park Manhattan margaritas MCNY memberships Met mexican food MOMA movie premiere ms walk museum music New Year's Eve New York new york botanic garden New York City Food and Wine Festival New York Magazine New York Times New York Wine Expo Nolita NYC Off-Broadway online shopping open bar out of towners outdoors pancakes party photos pizza public art publications Queens restaurant Restaurant Review Restaurant Week Riesling Crawl rooftop roosevelt running sake save money shopping shopping deals skincare social media Social Media Week Soho spirits summer Super Bowl sushi sweetery tapas taxi TDF Terroir The Jewish Museum Theater thrift store Thrillist Times Square travel Twitter giveaway upper east side video views Village Voice volunteer opportunity website West Village williamsburg win wine wine class wine event Yankee Stadium yelp yoga Ziegfeld Theater