Get ready, Vegas: Following openings in downtown New York, Boston, and most recently, Los Angeles, Italian food mecca Eataly is officially opening on December 27 at the Park MGM Las Vegas, and it's going big—like, 40,000-square-feet big. We caught up with CEO Nicola Farinetti—son of founder Oscar Farinetti— to hear all about the new store, his favorite things to eat there, and where you'll find more Eataly stores in 2019.
Why Vegas for this next Eataly location?
We felt that Vegas could be an amazing megaphone for our message, because basically, 100 percent of Americans will eventually go once in their life to Vegas. It always happens. And we felt that there was a very unique occasion for us to speak with everybody and to try to send this message. So we said, “You know what? We should probably do it.”
What makes this location unique to your other locations?
We have the same philosophy, “eat, shop, and learn” high-quality Italian food [at every Eataly store]. But every store develops an identity, and this one is extremely peculiar, because we expect a wider sale from the restaurant side than from the market side, respective to other Eataly locations that we have in the U.S. So we are big on that—we have an incredible amount of counters. I can't get into the details, but we are destroying the barriers between market and restaurant more and more, and we’re creating a concept that’s very unique, very integrated. You can eat-buy, buy-eat, learn, and do everything in one place. It’s the first time that we’re offering 24-hour something. It’s [also] the first time we are close to a casino.
Tell me more about the in-store experience.
In our store in Vegas, we went all in; we have a ginormous wine store with more than 1,000 wines, where we have a section [where you can] taste wine. We’re going to have more than 50 wines every day, that you can just try to make sure that you understand what you’re buying and which ones you like. And then you can buy it and bring it home, bring it to your hotel, and sip it wherever you want.
We [also] dedicated a bar to the concept of aperitivo. In Italian, aperitivo is this very basic idea of drinking a little something before dinner or before lunch, in order to stimulate your appetite. So we’re going to go big with spritz, with Americanos, with all those fizzy, light drinks that we drink before our meals.
Then, we have this place called Gran Caffè Milano, [it's the first time in] Eataly that we’re putting a name of an Italian city into a concept. We want to give the experience that you’d have in a coffee bar in Milano. It’s going to be open 24/7, so you’re going to experience the entire lifestyle of a cafe Milano. From breakfast, to lunch, to dinner, to the cocktail at night. Basically, we’re creating this very wide, big experience, where we make sure we’re delivering something that you could drink all over Italy, that you could not find anywhere else.
What else is exclusive to the Vegas location?
When you go to Milano, in the city center, close to the Duomo, there is this bull that has become very famous. Because if you put your foot on it and you turn 360-degrees clockwise, it brings you luck. So we decided, close to Gran Caffè Milano, to replicate that. I guess that everyone in a gambling city would like to have good luck, so I think it really works well for everyone.
What are you most excited about for this opening?
I would really like people to think, “I’m going to Eataly and spending a couple of hours there. Maybe I’m learning, maybe I’m taking a class, maybe I’m eating there, maybe I’m drinking there." I think the Eataly experience is completely missing today in [Vegas], and I’m extremely excited to see if the experience we’ve designed is going to be understood and going to work. Of course I’m confident, but I can’t wait.
Is there anything that you would change?
I guess I would change the opening date, because my mom is going to be very mad that I’m not going to be home for Christmas. So I would open earlier, probably—but that's because I’m very excited. We’re very, very happy [with] how things turned out.
So when you’re at Eataly, what's your favorite thing to eat?
Well, I’m Italian, so I’m a pasta guy. I love how much effort we put in our pasta, and we import the best-ever Italian-made pasta directly from Gragnano. Or, we make our own fresh pasta in house, with organic flour, so we’re very committed to the recipe, [it’s] authentic and I love it. I know I may sound like a cliche, but it is my favorite thing.
What are some things that visitors might not know about when they go to Eataly, that they can or should try?
Good question. I think that visitors might not understand that at Eataly, we produce a lot of things in-house. As I was telling you, we make our own pasta, we make our own bread, we make our own mozzarella. I love when customers really understand that and start digging into that. So for sure, always try the things that we do 100 percent in house first. I guess visitors should [also] be adventurous in their wine choice. Eataly has an incredible amount of wine, I think, and sometimes because lack of knowledge, we stick to the three, four, five names that we know. We have 1,000 different wines, and people should not be afraid to try this stuff.
Now that the holidays are coming up soon, are there any special products that you have on sale or events that you’re going to plan on having?
Holidays for Italians means panettone. I think we might be the biggest importer of panettone in the U.S. We carry an incredible amount of different types, so that is always a very big focus for us. As soon as you walk into Eataly Vegas, you’re going to understand that panettone is quite big.
Looking to the future, are there any other locations planned or openings?
So the first-ever [location in France] is going to be Paris, which is going to be early spring [2019], and we’re very excited about that. We can’t wait. We’re doing this with Lafayette—it’s a very, very beautiful store, right there in the city center in Le Marais. And I think it’s going to be very important for us to be in Paris, one of the most important cities in Europe.
Then, toward the end of 2019, we’re going to open in Toronto, which is another big thing for us. Because in Toronto, such an amazing city, like 30 percent of the people are either first-, second-, or third-generation Italian. So there’s this huge culture of really high-quality Italian food. We are opening in London in 2020, which is another big milestone for us. And then we’re looking very seriously at the United States: we want to open at least another three or four stores in the next three to four years. We want to double our presence, and we’re looking at many cities. We have a good opportunity—nothing we can say yet—but it’s happening.
That’s really exciting news.
Yes, it is.
I have a fill in the blank for you. By 2025, Eataly will be…
By 2025, Eataly will most likely be three times the size [it is] today, I hope. I would love to be in China by 2025. I don’t know if it’s happening, but it’s a wish of ours to develop there.
Nice.
I think that’s something we can never take for granted—authenticity of what we do.
