Found myself in Century City – one of the few times I have ventured out – and decided to head over to Eataly to see what was happening.
It felt very safe - much safer than my one post lockdown trip to Ralph’s to pick up a prescription. The entrance on the second level is closed and you must go to the third level. They are enforcing a mask policy and as you walk in there is a manned desk with gloves for you take and a nice big dispenser of Purell. They also have a 50 person limit in the store and I felt safer walking around than in Ralph’s with its narrower aisles.
I was hoping for a tuna panini as I quite like Eataly’s tuna paninis, but they had no paninis. Which when I thought of it made sense since those are items that must be consumed that day and they probably don’t have enough foot traffic to justify making paninis. Plenty of bread, however.
Well stocked on fruit and vegetables and looked better quality and more variety than pre-pandemic. I think with the lockdown Eataly is trying to pivot to more groceries. Happy to pick up some Harry’s Berries.
Fish market open, cheese counter, fresh pasta case. I assume the meat counter open as well, although I didn’t venture into that part of the store. Well stocked on dry goods, including a myriad of fancy imported tuna. Almost picked up a discounted chocolate colombe left over from Easter, which looked delicious, but I restrained myself. Lots of discounted Easter chocolate. Must have been horrible for a food emporium to have had Easter in the middle of a lockdown. Very well stocked on eggs. Next time I need eggs I think I will venture over to Eataly since I’m sick of Instacart’s weird, unasked for substitutions and Mercado’s obscene markups on retail prices – in some cases over 60% – to say nothing of delivery fees, etc.
Picked up a pre-cooked Jidori chicken. They have them either hot or you heat at home yourself. I opted for the hot, but next time would go for the heat yourself, because the hot was a tiny bit dried out. However, it was still extremely flavorful – even the white meat – and heads and tails better than the tasteless ready made chickens at Whole Foods.
Anyway, for anyone who lives nearby, Eataly is a worthy contender for groceries. I was on foot, but I’m wondering if they are still bothering to charge for parking at the mall, although you always got a single hour free and with almost everything closed you would be hard-pressed to be there longer than an hour (although I did see people just hanging out together on those benches at the mall).