The initiative was presented today by Autogrill CEO Gianmario Tondato Da Ruos and Eataly founder Oscar Farinetti at an event held in the renovated service area.
The new point of sale is on the A1, between the link with the A22 and the Modena Nord barrier, an area with significant flows of Italian and foreign travellers. Further, it is in a part of the country particularly renowned for gastronomy, Emilia-Romagna being one of Europe’s leading food producers and the region with the highest number of PDO and PGI products (43).
In this point of sale it’s possible to savour specialities that embrace the wealth of Italy’s gastronomic tradition in a single space, all of them made with a strong focus on freshness and the sustainability of the production methods.
The offering on the ground floor
Includes a round-the-clock café by Eataly and Kimbo, a long standing partner of Autogrill, and a confectionery counter with “Golosi di salute” pâtisserie by Luca Montersino, the Eataly pastry chef whose prized creations can also be found in Autogrill’s Bistrots at Milan’s Stazione Centrale (rail station) and in the Mercato del Duomo. Then there are Ortobra salads featuring wonderfully fresh vegetables and focusing on the best the market can offer season to season. Through craft pasta maker Michelis, Eataly x Autogrill is launching a special collaboration with the Modena pasta maker Rossi, which will provide the typical Modena tortellini (“Consorzio” standard) and passatelli with Parmigiano Reggiano. The offering features La Granda meat from the famous Piedmontese cattle breed (Slow Food Presidium). And lastly, being in Emilia-Romagna, there are two other indispensables: the craft piadina, here supplied by Fratelli Maioli (Cervia), and Lait ice cream made with mountain milk creamed at the last moment in an innovative production process.A wood oven bakery completes the ground floor offering with the making of various types of bread and focaccia, to be filled with Eataly products, all in full view of the customers.
Is dedicated to table service restaurants, seating a total of 350. The restaurants on the floor are La Pasta, La Pizza and La Sosta, the latter dedicated to the philosophy of Tonino Guerra, based on the concept that taking a break must be a pleasure and slow down the rhythm of life.The approach in all the restaurants is geared to the express cooking characteristic of La Pasta, in which the firm of Michelis makes fresh pasta every morning for lasagne with La Granda meat sauce (Slow Food Presidium). La Pizza is the location’s real “flagship” restaurant: at last it’s possible, on the motorway too, to enjoy a true Neapolitan pizza, made in front of you with organic flours and cooked in a large traditional wood oven with a rotating floor. While La Sosta offers travellers raw meat from La Granda, Giotto hamburgers and tagliata (sliced beef), all from strictly Piedmontese breed cattle (Slow Food Presidium). La Granda, the first Slow Food organization (founder Sergio Capaldo), is an association of breeders of Piedmontese cattle (razza Piemontese) who set themselves an extremely stringent code. No vitamins, no supplements, not even silage: only natural fodder cultivated and transformed on their own farms.