In the biggest foodie news since the discovery of yeast, Dallas has scored its own location of Eataly, the Italian-themed food hall/marketplace that's the ne plus ultra of gourmet food.

The Dallas location will go into NorthPark Center, in between Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, and will open in 2020. This will be the very first Eataly in Texas.

According to the Dallas Morning News, it will go into a space on the west side of the mall facing Boedeker Street that was previously occupied by Pirch, the upscale appliance chain, which left in 2017. The space has been vacant ever since.

Founded in Turin, Italy in 2007, Eataly is an unparalleled shopping and eating experience, with restaurants, bakery, wine shop, retail store, and cooking school. The name Eataly combines two words "eat" plus "Italy." "Eataly is about eating Italian food, but it's not just about Italian food," the website says.

Eataly stores feature a massive selection of pastas, pizzas, meats, breads, oils, cheeses, sauces, wines, olives, dried mushrooms, crackers, teas, coffee, desserts, chocolates, imported canned goods, aprons, rare spices, the list goes on.

Its vast selection turns a visit into a field trip, where you can spend hours investigating products you've never seen or items you can't find anywhere else. The educational aspect is further enhanced by classes and tasting events.

Eataly describes its main goal as demonstrating that high-quality products can be available to everyone, easy to find, and at affordable prices, and also to share the stories of people and companies who make the best Italian high-quality food and wine.

They claim to offer the best artisan products at reasonable prices by creating a relationship between producers and distributors, and by focusing on sustainability, responsibility, and sharing.

Eataly's arrival in the U.S. helped spawn a food hall trend that has spread across the country, including our own Legacy Hall, which opened in Plano in late 2017.

There are 39 Eataly locations around the world, but only six in the U.S.: two in New York plus one each in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, the most recent store, which opened in December 2018.

The Dallas store at NorthPark will have three levels: two in the mall and a third level added to the top for a restaurant and patio, similar to the Eataly in Los Angeles.

Eataly CEO Nicola Farinetti told the DMN that the company has always had their eye on Dallas, calling it "an important, diverse, and cultural city — perfect for Eataly."