Eatdrink #81 January/February 2020

24 | January/February 2020
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Road Trips
Can You Drive to Italy?
Eataly Toronto Is Now Open
eatdrink.ca |@eatdrinkmag
By BRYAN LAVERY
What is more exciting than
planning a winter culinary
getaway? Toronto’s Eataly
offers the type of authentic
culinary experience that is sought out not
just by locals, but food and drink enthusiasts
from around the globe. This is Canada’s first
iteration, and given its success it seems likely
that Montreal will be a contender for Eataly in
the not too distant future.
In January 2007 the Italian visionary and
entrepreneur Oscar Farinetti converted an
abandoned vermouth factory in Torino into
the first Eataly location. He had travelled
across the 20 regions that comprise Italy to
locate and select a variety of quality regional
products which embrace Slow Food’s partner’s
qualifications for food that is good, clean,
and fair. (Slow Food is the grassroots global
organization founded in 1989 to combat the
erosion of local food culture, tradition, and
encroaching fast-food culture. The initiative has
evolved into a global movement that engages
millions of people in over 160 countries.)
Toronto’s Eataly, the company’s 40th
location, occupies 50,000 square feet and
employs more than 300 people. A $100
million redevelopment of Toronto’s Manulife
La Piazza is a restaurant in the heart of the store,
inspired by the traditional Italian town square.
Centre, a prestige address located at Bay and
Bloor, added a glass façade to the property
to incorporate the new retail space. Inside
the Centre, a reconfiguration and a shuffling
of several crucial tenant spaces allowed for
the construction of the high-concept Eataly
Toronto — a vast culinary utopia.
Eataly reflects the distinguishing characteristics
of the biodiversity of the Italian culinary
repertoire, focusing on the finest regionalspecific
products and traditional ingredients
Italy has to offer. Also on offer is a selection
of small-scale specialty products from dairy
farmers, cheesemakers and butchers. This
is part of Eataly’s philosophy of procuring
locally-sourced products.
The main entrance to Eataly and Il Gran Caffe, a fullservice
Italian Coffee Bar, is on Bloor Street east of Bay.