Eataly World’s Opening Signals the Next Phase of Food Hall Expansion
Skift Take
Have we reach peak food hall? No, not even close. These playgrounds are a solution of sorts to disappearing retail by filling expensive real estate and playing to consumers’ appetites for gourmet choices and largely local, organic obsessions.
The opening of Eataly's new agri-food park (read: theme park) FICO Eataly World today in Bologna, Italy, is the epitome of two prevalent trends in the culinary world — food halls on the retail side and the farm-to-table movement on the supply side.
With 47 restaurants and bars, 40 live production areas, 22 gardens, a herd of actual farm animals, and a variety of hands-on classes, Eataly World appears to be the pinnacle of the food hall epoch when really it is just the beginning.
The first Eataly opened one decade ago in Turin, Italy, which the New York Times at the time described as a “megastore” that “combines elements of a bustling European open market, a Whole-Foods-style supermarket, a high-end food court and a New Age learning center.”
Founder Oscar Farinetti had his vision set on international expansion from the beginning and soon after opened the first international location in Japan. He then partnered with celebrity chef Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich’s hosp
