Imports

Yes California, There Is An Eataly Being Considered In L.A.

Yesterday, Eater broke the big news that their shadowy cabal of operatives had pinned Joe Bastianich down and got him to reveal his plot to bring Mario Batali’s artisan Italian mega-mart Eataly to Los Angeles. Since then, rumors and suspicion have been flying around town. Are they? Aren’t they? At this point, when Detroit is even getting in on L.A.’s action and the Batali/Bastianich/Silverton collaboration Mozza is still one of our most in-demand restaurants, they’d probably be crazy not to. The good news? It looks like the Eataly team is very interested in you, Los Angeles.

Following the story, L.A. Weekly spoke with their pal, Eataly partner and La Scuola dean Lidia Bastianich, who said that her son Joe was solely in L.A. to shoot Masterchef. However, he just happened to start poking around town, looking for proper Eataly real-estate, something the company is allegedly also doing in Toronto. Still, Bastianich maintains, “nothing definite, certainly.”

Since three is the magic number, we reached out to Eataly’s director of communications, Brooke Adams, who confirms Mrs. Bastianich’s story. Adams writes, “We are considering opening an Eataly in LA and are actively looking for sites.” So there you have it. It’s not a go, but it’s certainly not a no.

Now we’re just wondering where can we cram 50,000-square-feet of Italian products and wine in L.A. to lure the crowds? Culver City? KTown? Downtown? We’d love to get some of your location suggestions for the Eataly team in our comments, just to speed the whole process up a bit.

Yes California, There Is An Eataly Being Considered In L.A.