Eataly: La Pizza

"It's every chef's wet dream."

A culinary mecca in the heart of NYC.  Eataly is the largest Italian food and wine marketplace in the world, housing 50,000 square feet of artisanal products, in a former toy building in the heart of the Flatiron district.

Brought to you by the Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich group, Eataly is a site to be seen.  If you're a self-proclaimed foodie, walking through this culinary phenomenon will leave you in nothing short of awe and amazement.

Five different restaurants.  Nine different vendors.  Walls upon walls and endless aisles of fresh cheeses, breads, farm-fresh produce, dried pastas, olive oils, wine, cookbooks, specialty meats, fresh seafood, coffee, gelato, and so forth.  If you haven't walked through Eataly yet, now is the time.

Bone marrow at Casa Mono

It really is amazing when you think about the NYC food scene.  With close to 25,000 restaurants, it is very hard not to find what you’re craving.  With new restaurants popping up all the time (close to 5000 in just 4 years), anything you can’t find will soon become available. 

So what’s my favorite dish in NYC?  It’s the “Roasted bone marrow with radishes”, on the menu at Casa Mono. 

Roasted bone marrow, pan con tomate, parsley and radish salad

Casa Mono is a small Spanish restaurant in Mario Batali’s huge Italian empire.  It has about ten tables, and a handful of bar stools overlooking an open kitchen, or a wine bar depending on which way you’re facing.  If you decide to try it out, I recommend going during lunch or off-peak hours between 3pm and 5pm, because the line is out the door once dinner starts.