Eataly

Flatiron
200 Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue at West 23rd Street

P: 212.229.2560

Financial District
4 World Trade Center
101 Liberty Street

P: 212.897.2895

The original Flatiron Eataly has 50,000 square feet of Italian gastronomy -- groceries, meat and poultry, salamis and cured meats, cheese, produce, bread and pastries, pizza, beer and wine.  There are wonderful ingredients to buy and cook at home but also 7 mini-restaurants and 14 food stations.  Now there is a second one downtown in the World Trade Center with similar abbondanza.  But these places are far more food halls than grocers and so prepared for gigantic crowds vying to eat at one of the restaurants.

What's great: 

They claim to have the largest selection of Italian grocery items outside of Italy. 

What to know: 

While the quality of everything is superb, the prices can be much higher than elsewhere, especially for cured meats and cheeses.  Eataly is the creation of Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, Lidia Bastianich, and partners from the original Eataly located in Turin, Italy. Mario Batali was reported to have parted the partnership.