In 2023, there's no reason that holiday shopping shouldn't be an enjoyable full day experience that involves handmade pasta, Italian wines, and caviar. Your local shopping mall is super busy and doesn't have any of this stuff? Let me introduce you to Eataly.
This now global establishment was founded in Italy and is a really unique blend of market, restaurant, and learning center concepts.
The Bay Area store has a bakery on the first floor, wines for days on the second, and two restaurants or market at a learning center on the third.
Okay, so this is how you do an Eataly holiday shopping day the right way: Start off with lunch at Eataly's rooftop restaurant and lounge, Terra because nothing gets you in the mood better than caviar and truffle - which are in season RIGHT NOW. And A5 Wagyu, which is always in season (like, to me, I don't know if there's actually Wagyu season).
What to order at Terra:
Fornello Pugliese - great for groups
Tartare di Tonno con Caviale
Truffle tasting menu
Raviolo with egg inside (off the menu - ask for Chef Antonio's special dish)
Cavatelli al Ragù di Terra
Traditional Italian holiday dessert, Pandoro - with all the toppings
Ask your server to pair the wines for you
Ask your server to prepare a glass or two of wines for you. Or four, or whatever you're in the mood for.
Then once your mind is blown, go to the second floor and find Giacomo. He knows literally everything that there is to know about Italian wines, and he can pick out some really meaningful gifts for friends and family, and yes, you're encouraged to taste them first.
Okay, we're finally arriving at the reason that we came here in the first place. And this little bar cart over here is actually a full bar where you can get a drink to carry around while you're shopping:
Eataly has hundreds of different extra virgin olive oils, hundreds of different pastas, and basically any Italian food that you're in the market for you're going to find here - and you're going to find great gifts for people who also like Italian food.
If you're a shopper you can spend hours here, but if you want everything just packaged for you and ready to go, they have that too.
We got the Pandoro cake that we had for lunch, which is basically like a little slice of heaven.
We got the Panettone and put an American spin on it by making French toast the morning after Thanksgiving.
And then we got a bunch of the Pasticcini, the little tiny pastries, and brought them over as kind of like an appetizer. Big hit.
So if you need to do holiday shopping but don't want to get a meaningless gift that's gonna sit in the closet, or you're just looking for an amazing foodie experience, I cannot recommend Eataly enough.
