The Lapiazza section of the Eataly in the city's Flatiron district. The Eataly coming to 4 World Trade Center will be its second establishment in Manhattan. Photo: Eataly
There will be no martini breakfasts at the new Eataly coming to the World Trade Center.
The giant restaurant and food market will open its second Manhattan location this spring on the entire 40,000-square-foot third floor of Tower 4 at 101 Liberty St. Hoping for a permit to sell alcohol to its early-bird customers, it had applied to start pouring the booze at 8 a.m., Monday through Saturday (12 p.m. on Sunday). But Community Board 1’s Financial District Committee nixed it.
“Just out of curiosity, why do have to serve alcohol at 8 a.m.?” committee member Pat Moore asked Caolan Sleeper, Eataly’s construction manager who was speaking on behalf of the company.
“I don’t think we’re going to get a lot of people ordering alcohol at 8 a.m.,” Sleeper said, adding that Eataly would like to have “the option.”
Sleeper said that Eataly planned to open a smaller portion of the store at 7 a.m. for breakfast. “We’re anticipating a very large breakfast crowd down in the Financial District,” she told the committee. “And then starting at 8 a.m. we would like to have the ability to start serving alcohol, especially on weekends, we want to get the mimosa crowd, the brunch crowd.
But committee member Frances Curtis, an official with the public employees union, DC37, reminded the committee that the city’s Human Resources Administration workers—not exactly the weekend mimosa crowd—will be among those coming to work each morning. The agency occupies 14 floors of the 72-story tower.
“To have 8 o’clock liquor in the morning, where you work?” she said.
At first, the committee had seemed amenable to the idea. “It is in a commercial building where, in Tower 4, you have to know where it is. It’s encased and personally I have no trouble with it,” co-chair Susan Cole said at the outset of the discussion. “I shop at the Eataly on 23rd Street and I’m very fond of them. They’re responsible.”
But aside from the issue of hundreds of city workers in the building, it also came to light that the 23rd Street store starts pouring the drinks when it opens for lunch at 11:30 a.m. And Brookfield Place’s Le District, similarly housed in a big office building, also begins serving alcohol at 11:30 a.m.
“Ok, we’re being consistent with the neighborhood,” Cole conceded. At that, the committee approved an 11 a.m. start for serving alcohol Monday through Saturday, and 12 p.m. on Sunday. Eataly will close at 11 p.m. every day. Caolan said she would agree to change.
According to the plans shown to the committee, Eataly will have 10 bars with a total of 65 seats throughout the space, with 372 seats and 193 tables for dining.
Caolan said Eataly is targeting April 15 for its opening, “but there are some hurdles to go through.”
