My friend Morgan and I bought tickets weeks ago for the Eataly September Fest which was held on Friday night. For $70 it was an you could eat and drink – swoon! It was my FOURTH night out in a row, but I had 28 points going into Friday night. My strategy was two things: take a picture of everything I ate and track later, and also eat and drink a little bit of everything and not a lot of anything. I got that strategy from Giada De Laurentis – she gets asked that question all the time of how she can stay so slender being surrounded by food all the time.
If you’ve not been to Eataly, it’s a foodies dream. The restaurant/shopping/wine store is located on on Ohio just north of the loop. You could literally spend hours in there. Here is my tip though – especially if you happen to go on a weekend. Find a restaurant you want to go to first – sometimes there is an hour wait for a table – you’ll get a buzzer to buzz you when your table is ready and can walk around and shop while you wait.
The first time I went, I walked around for an hour, then decided to sit down to eat, only to be told it would be a 90 minute wait – doh! I borrowed the photo below from Galdones Photography – Hugh Galdones is an amazing Chicago food photographer.
Even though there were limited tickets and staggered ticket times, it was still a sea of humanity. We got there at 7:30 and stayed until 10:30 – I think we pretty much ate a bit of everything that was offered – except sushi – I don’t do raw seafood. The lines for wine were long too, so we may have had three drinks the whole night?
First up was fried calamari, a fried arancini with a classic Caesar salad.
Next we had these delicious chicken nuggets with homemade buffalo and ranch sauce – so good!
We ran into some friends that Morgan used to work with. She went to culinary school and worked at Eataly in New York, and Spiaggia in Chicago before working for a large catering company in Chicago. Her friend Sam made these amazing ravioli.
And how could I not get a slice of pizza?! This was a four cheese pizza that was made in their wood burning pizza ovens. That crust was amazing.
We had this amazing farro salad that I can’t wait to recreate – it had farro, green beans, ricotta salata in a red wine vinegar sauce and it was paired with this roasted pork shoulder.
The farro salad also had pepperonchini.
I also had this amazing short rib taco – so delicious and I even ate some of the crispy onion straws.
Stan’s Donuts are amazing – they also had donut shaped chocolate chip cookies too.
We left the event full, but not stuffed! On the train ride home I tallied everything up, and I had 44 points for dinner, which left me -16 for the week – which is amazing considering how much I ate out last week.
So fun hanging out with you Morgan and letting me sleep over too – next time we will cook in your amazing kitchen!
If you do get a change to go to Eataly – I’d suggest going on a week day so it’s less crowded. Such a fun night!
I am so kicking myself for not having eaten at Eataly when I was in Chicago! It was right across the street!
The pizza made me wonder, have you ever tried grilling a pizza, or making one in your pit smoker? I couldn’t remember if you had, but perhaps one made in a cast iron skillet would work? That might give it that wood-fired taste.
Oh my gosh Julianne – you could have spent hours at Eataly – next time!
Yes, I’ve grilled pizza – I had great success on a gas grill – I have a charcoal grill now and it’s a bit more difficult to control the heat. But doing it in a cast iron would work! I’ll have to try that!