We have good friends who bought an apartment a few years ago on New York City’s Upper West Side. Their place is a couple blocks off Central Park, very near Lincoln Center. Whenever we visit them there, we include a weekend lunch at Eataly, on Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District.
This sprawling Italian shopping and dining complex is filled with locals and tourists alike, most of whom are shopping for wines, cheeses, deli meats, olives — all things Italian. It feels like Christmas when you walk in there. So much so that we shipped ourselves a gift box the last time we went and enjoyed an exotic assortment of crackers, cheeses, prosciutto, olives and chocolates when we arrived back home.
My favorite thing to do at Eataly is to have a lengthy lunch in its rooftop restaurant, Sabbia. This open-air eatery is the perfect place for a casual lunch in New York. Between the four of us, we sample beers or wines and order an antipasti lunch featuring assorted charcuterie, cheeses, olives and breads.
Even if the weather is cold, the restaurant’s glass ceiling allows sunlight to pour into the space and the atmosphere is boisterously intoxicating. Lunch at Eataly is the perfect intermezzo for a day of shopping or sightseeing in the city.
