Flatiron

I had a little time last weekend to wonder the city and had been dying to try Eataly. I popped out of the subway to look forward and see a gorgeous park, looked up at the flat iron building and looked left and there was my place.

 The dog park

 Madison Square Park

 William Seward statue

Flatiron Building

I am always amazed at how much is packed into this little city-space wise...

Eataly-this is Mario Batali's brain child. I think it is hard to describe, as every time I read about it, I couldn't picture what it truly looked liked. Here is their manafesto if you care to read http://eatalyny.com/how-to-eataly/manifesto

From the outside it looks like any other restaurant/store front in NYC. It is two store fronts from the outside, so you get a sense it is large!

Then inside, it has an open feel with areas of the store sectioned off by food and counters. From the front-at your left is a deli, to the right are racks of things on sale, then desserts. Essentially, the store has everything-true restaurants where you sit and eat, there are walk up cafe type restaurants, there are deli's with counter space to eat, there are multiple sections of groceries-including meat, pasta, cheese, things for sale-cookware, sauces etc. As you stroll through, one section just flows into the next.

 Imagine 6+ rows just like this

 One of the first come first serve cafes

 One section of fresh meat

I had to take this pic as I chose to eat at the panini shop. I had the sopresseta-as you can see they even show what part of Italy the sandwich comes from! The sandwich was amazingly fresh, perfectly toasted and made my mouth water.

A necessary stop for anyone who loves Italian food.