Massive Italian Food Emporium Heads to Silicon Valley Mall

Lidia Bastianich’s famous marinara sauce—and soon enough, Lidia herself—are coming to Silicon Valley.

That’s because Eataly, the large-format Italian food marketplace inspired by the bazaars of Istanbul, is coming to Santa Clara, CA, landing at the Westfield Valley Fair mall in 2021. The new location will be the second Eataly in California—the other location is a highly-trafficked emporium at the Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles—the ninth in North America, and one of dozens worldwide.

The new Eataly market will occupy 51,000 square feet and three floors at the Westfield, and will be part of a massive renovation—one expected to cost $1.1 billion, but which, if we know real estate construction, may well go over that estimate.

And while you might question why Eataly didn’t choose San Francisco—say, North Beach?—or even Oakland for its second West Coast store, when you look at the surrounding tech giants, it’s easy to see Eataly’s motivation. Googleplex is 15 minutes away in Mountain View, while Apple is 10 minutes away in Cupertino. Neighboring San Jose is California’s third most populous city after Los Angeles and San Diego with 1,030,119 people, and hosts more tech powerhouses and start-ups than you can shake a SIM card at, as well as the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport. That centrality translates to a lot of business dinners and grocery shopping at Eataly. (Plus, there’s a three-wave Italian immigrant history in San Jose’s Goose Town and North San Jose neighborhoods—though many of those immigrants were from Southern Italy, and Eataly’s roots are in Turin.)

This will be the third Eataly in Westfield’s portfolio, which in 2016 opened Eataly NYC Downtown at Westfield World Trade Center in New York and in 2017 opened the Century City Los Angeles location. The in-house Westfield setup seems to work well for Eataly, providing it with plentiful real estate and separation from any mall food courts.

The new Eataly will continue its “Eat, Shop, Learn” philosophy, offering a mixture of restaurants, gourmet items to take home, and cooking classes—hopefully, a few with Lidia herself.

Earlier this year in August, Eataly brand cut ties with minority investor and chef Mario Batali following allegations of sexual harassment. Batali will not be involved with the Silicon Valley location.