Why celebrating Hemingway, you ask? “Every Eataly store around the world is dedicated to something or someone,” commented Eataly Chicago’s General Manager Raffaele Piarulli. “And we decided to dedicate the Chicago store to this legendary genius of American literature, who was born not too far away from here (Oak Park) and who also spent a considerable amount of time in Italy, especially in the Veneto region.” Hemingway enjoyed foods and wines from several countries, and he was extremely fascinated by Italy – therefore the Eataly team likes to think that “he would be happy here.” Celebrating Hemingway’s birthday is not the only cultural activity that the Eataly brand has been promoting during the last year: the New York store hosted an event with cultural luminaries Renzo Arbore and Alessandro Baricco on Columbus Day 2013, and, throughout the year, it’s also been the theater for innumerous cultural activities such as Taranta dance shows and brief Opera performances – all executed as beautiful and impromptu flash-mobs in the middle of La Piazza, the standing restaurant. “We don’t want to just export our amazing and delicious food.” Said founder Oscar Farinetti on numerous occasions. “We want to introduce the whole world to “tutte le cose belle italiane” (all the beautiful things we have in Italy), i.e. our culture, fashion, architecture, design and all in all our overall lifestyle.” And according to the Eataly team…there’s much, much more to come this Fall. by Cristina Villa