Italian 'Disneyland of food' set to make its UK debut this year
The 40,000sq ft food hall with restaurants, shops and cafes will be located next to Liverpool Street Station, according to the Evening Standard, which cited property sources.
The new site is expected to be leased from British Land, one of the UK’s largest property development companies. The company is redeveloping the building at 135 Bishopsgate, which was previously occupied by Royal Bank of Scotland.
Eataly is expected to spread over the majority of the ground floor, with a front terrace opening directly onto Bishopsgate, reported the paper.
Eataly has been expected to open in London for some time. In 2014 Eataly CEO Luca Baffigo Filangieri announced the brand’s 2016 opening in Selfridges, but it never materialised.
Founded by Oscar Farinetti in Turin in 2004, Eataly now operates 35 food halls combining restaurants and food retail. The brand operates internationally, with locations in Tokyo, São Paulo and a landmark site in New York City.
In November last year it opened Eataly World in Bologna, a 1,000,000sq ft centre dubbed the ‘Disneyland of food’ with more than 40 bars and restaurants and two hectares of agri-farm.
The company has plans to open stores in San Francisco and Las Vegas in the next two years, with locations in Toronto, Stockholm and Paris also rumoured to be on the cards.
