This weekend, after reading an article in Chicago Parent about how kid friendly Mario Batali’s new food emporium Eataly, we decided to go check it out. 

On a Saturday.

For Lunch.

Our first mistake was reading an article and thinking, hey it says kid friendly, that must apply to us. When articles say ‘kid friendly’, they mean people with one or two kids. Or maybe three older kids. Not four kids, and especially not when 3 of them are not even school aged.

We were the only people in there with that many kids, no matter what the age.

And Adam almost had a heart attack having to push the double stroller through throngs of people while I yelled at Jack to stay with us and simultaneously tried to keep ol’ octopus hand AKA Ben from grabbing everything off the shelves. I was also holding 5 winter jackets. Which actually helped cushion the snub I did over and over again – elbowing people out of the way so I could keep track of my kids.

We stopped for pizza at the La Pizza and La Pasta restaurant. For two pizzas and a plate of salami it was $60 bucks. Seemed pricey for what we got, but cheap compared to what else we purchased.

There was a waitress who wanted Ben to move his chair in so she could walk behind it. I tried my hardest not to smirk when she attempted to sit him down and push him in.

“Oh this is going to be bad,” I thought.

It ended with the chair pushed in and Ben on the floor next to it kicking and screaming. At least he was flailing out of the walk way she so desperately wanted to establish.

She sort of looked over and said, “Oh, I didn’t realize you had FOUR boys.” Yes, four boys, that’s the problem, lady!

I will say the pizza was very good. You might be able to see the gold, wood burning stoves in the background. We took the kids to get a better look and they really did just have a bunch of wood burning in there, cooking the pizza. It was very thin and gooey, just the way I like it.

We had read in the ‘kid friendly’ magazine article that they had a nutella bar. Nutella Bar! What could be more kid friendly than that? But by the time we made it downstairs we realized we needed to get it to go. There was no way to wait for a table, then find 2 high chairs from who knows where and also find somewhere to squirrel away the stroller.

We ordered 4 cookies called Bacio di Dama con Nutella. The description is ‘Literally “Lady’s Kiss”, hazelnut cookies sandwiched together with Nutella’. Adam gave me $20 and it rang up for MORE than that!

I know Nutella is expensive, which is why I will only buy it at Costco in huge containers, but just to give you some reference, if you want a simple slice of bread with nutella is $2.80.

Ugh. Freaking out about prices makes me feel like such an old person. Have I gotten so old that I’m wrong about scoffing at these prices?

Sometimes I forget that I live in a big city. I can drive to most places and find free parking. The kids still have plenty of places to run, climb and play. But today felt very big city. The hoards of people, the valet parking, the ostentatious rows and rows of food for sale.

I realize there are very few places in this big country where they could have the pork and cheese display that I posted at the top of this blog and make it profitable. And in some ways I’m proud that we are have it right in our backyard.

I guess it’s nice to know that we have it at our fingertips, but also nice to know we could completely avoid it as well. At least until the kids get a little older…