A Major Italian Food Hall Looks Set to Open in the City Next Year

The giant Italian food hall brand Eataly will open in the City’s Broadgate development, next to Liverpool Street Station next year, according to a report in today’s Evening Standard.

The newspaper quotes property sources as saying “A 40,000 sq ft branch of the Eataly food hall concept — with restaurants, shops and cafes — is planned for a site on Bishopsgate near Liverpool Street station.”

Eater London understands from a source close to the deal that the lease is not yet signed on a property believed to be the ground-floor of the British Land-owned building at 135 Bishopsgate, formerly a premises occupied by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The Eataly empire was founded by entrepreneur Oscar Farinetti in Turin, northern Italy, in 2004. It now has 35 food halls — which combine restaurants and food retail. Branches operate across the world, including in Tokyo, São Paulo and a landmark site in New York City. Eataly’s most recent megasite opened in LA.

There are a total of five Eataly halls across America and last week Eater reported that the company has plans to open stores in San Fransisco and Las Vegas in the next two years, as well as “more international locations in cities such as Toronto, Stockholm, Paris, and London,” so today’s report is not wholly unexpected. As news broke last week that Eataly was planning to go public, as early as 2018, executive chairman Andrea Guerra told the Financial Times that over the next ten years, the company aimed to “have a store in every world capital.”

A representative from Eataly said: “Eataly is growing and we are always looking for new locations. We love London and we hope Eataly London will become a reality soon.”

Stay tuned for more details.

• Eataly Eyes IPO in 2018 [E]