Roast Chicken From the Rosticceria at Eataly

By Robert Sietsema Tue., Sep. 7 2010 at 8:00 AM

Categories: Sietsema, Taste Test, The Early Word

The luscious whole chicken ($10.75) from the Eataly Rosticceria.

Now that the crowds have abated somewhat, it's possible to dart into Eataly -- the giant Italian supermarket across the street from the Flatiron Building -- and emerge with an item or two. Since I'm a big fan of Italian rosticcerias (in rural areas, roadside fast food in which the focus is on hunks of meat done on rotisseries over charcoal), I decided to grab a chicken at the new Eataly Roticceria.

Chicken mounted on a couple of slices of a rustic peasant loaf from the ovens of Eataly, also produced as you watch (though I suspect some of it is already par-baked).

At $4.80 per pound, the price was competitive with Gourmet Garage, D'Agostino's, and Citarella, but the volume of chickens Eataly is producing from its multiple banks of glowing, glass-fronted roasting cabinets is large enough to guarantee a really fresh-tasting chicken. And the farms that are the source of the birds are chalked up over the counter.

I came to the conclusion that the roast chicken at Eataly was a far superior product -- moist, faintly smoky, the skin with a simple black pepper rub, and not the morass of herbs found in many supermarkets.