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Special Report: Eataly - Short Hills, NJ

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By Zachary
Eataly
Opened: November 13, 2024
Owner: InvestIndustrial / Oscar Farinetti
Previous Tenants: assorted non-grocery tenants
Cooperative: none
Location: 1200 Morris Tpk, Short Hills, Millburn, NJ
Photographed: November 9, 2024 and November 14, 2024
Welcome to Eataly! This is the first time we're seeing an Eataly on the blog, and that's partially because there aren't that many. It's also partially because they're not really supermarkets -- they are, in part, gourmet markets (but also restaurants and food halls/cafes). But for the first time, the chain has opened a New Jersey location, so it's only fair that I've gotta go check it out!
Eataly is a food hall concept created by Oscar Farinetti in 2007, when the first location opened in Torino, Italy. The chain eventually expanded to its current size of around 40 stores, about 10 of them in the US, and in 2022, majority ownership of the chain was sold to investor InvestIndustrial.
There are several locations in New York City, but the first across the Hudson in New Jersey is here at the appropriately-upscale Mall at Short Hills. A famously high-end mall, the Mall at Short Hills is a natural choice for the very high-end Eataly concept. (A small note: the first picture, of the exterior, was taken about a week before the store opened; the rest on the store's second day of operation.)
Like the other location, this Eataly works hard on presentation. We enter the market on the left side to produce and dairy in the beginning, with a service counter behind them offering freshly-made pastas, cheese, and cured meats. A few small grocery shelves display imported Italian foods at the back, with a wine store and the entrance to the sit-down restaurant in the middle of the back wall. On the right side, rows of counters face a seating area for casual foods -- pizza, sandwiches, gelato, coffee, and pastries.
The display is very attractive and very high-end. The prices are extremely high, but for the most part, so is quality. And some prices are not unreasonable -- $4.69/lb for cremini mushrooms is right in line with other stores. Obviously, the more expensive mushrooms here are harder-to-find alternatives. Still, some things were sorely lacking in quality: all the green bell peppers were mushy and wrinkly -- an absolute deal-breaker for me, especially on the store's second day in business.
Here we can see the grocery shelving, which of course is not set up as aisles but instead smaller islands of groceries.
And just to the left is the fresh pasta and cheese/meat counter. Notice the mirror hanging above the pasta prep area, which appears to be a demo area -- probably so customers can watch fresh pasta being rolled out.
The fresh pasta counter is a very nice touch, although with prices starting at $12.99 a pound, not exactly where you get your everyday spaghetti. That's not an issue for this store, though, since it's not what they focus on. This is intended to be a destination for specialty items, much like many of the other stores in the mall.
In the back of the store, a few refrigerators display packaged sliced cured meats and block cheeses.
Looking back up towards the front of the store, we can see the counter for the cheeses and meats. I love the setup here, with cheeses in the front and cured meats in the back. They are, of course, sliced to order.
The store seemed very busy when I visited, and exceptionally well-staffed. We'll see if it maintains its volume. This location is a bit of a risk, because although the mall is a very heavily-trafficked mall, it's not the first place people might go for food shopping. Still, the (very affluent) areas surrounding the Short Hills Mall don't have any particularly spectacular gourmet markets, so this might become a destination.
In the back, the restaurant is separated from the store with this very attractive wooden wall, which is open through to the restaurant for visibility.
The wine store and entrance to the restaurant are at the back of the grocery store.
The wine store is beautiful, but very small. Still, if it's a carefully curated selection of specialized items (which the whole store seems to be), it probably doesn't need to be any bigger.
The pizza alla pala station, serving slices of flatbread pizzas, was quite popular. And the pizza did look very good -- but you can be prepared to pay $8 a slice here.
Here we're looking back towards the rest of the store, with the pizza counter on the right:
Counters for gelato, coffee, and pastries face a pleasant but crowded seating area that backs up to the indoor mall.
Once again, we see extremely expensive and extremely high-end offerings at each of the counters.
And now we've returned to the mall walkway!
This was a fun store to tour, but I can't say I'll be back soon -- simply because my shopping habits don't really include this type of food on any regular basis. But there's lots more to see this weekend!
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