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Eataly: Chicago

When my parents were visiting a couple weeks ago, we all went down to the fairly new Eataly in Chicago.  Quick synopsis:  it's like an Italian megastore/restaurant. 

One of my favorite statements I've seen so far about Eataly is Italian IKEA.

I wish I had a bit of an idea what to expect before we went so here's a bit for you.

There's an info desk, maybe stop at it.  We didn't see the info desk until we were leaving because it was insane when we walked in so we immediately headed to the second floor.

Yes, there are two floors.  The first floor seems to be mostly a market and small food, like gelato, paninis, coffee, etc.  The second floor is where the different eating places are.  (I don't want to call them restaurants because they don't seem to qualify as restaurants in my book.)

If you decide to eat at one of these places, you need to put your name in with the host and they will seat you.  The tables may appear to be similar to a food court where you can sit wherever's open, but that is not the case.  (This may entail a wait before your table is ready.)
We ended up eating at Le Verdure.  Mostly because it's the one we walked over to and the line at Karen's first choice, La Pizza & La Pasta was insane.  I was very happy with this outcome.  I particularly enjoyed the butternut squash farro.  We ended up selecting a few dishes to share between the four of us, which worked out very well. 

I think if I were to go back, I'd just do La Piazza which seems the most laid-back area (if you can find a table) or I'd check out the brewery.  

Personally, I found it pretty pricy, but I'm a cheapskate.

So there you go.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

p.s. If you drive down there, they have some parking deal set-up, which we discovered as we walked in.

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