Digital Chaos Media

In light of the Bruni dropping a tres on another Chang restaurant, I thought I’d review a restaurant that isn’t run by a pissed off Korean guy.  (Side note:  the new menu at Ssam and it’s three stars, in spite of all the love for  D.C., are probably due to Tien Ho and the newly hired Fran Derby since they do 95% of the cooking and menu planning while Chang gets fat eating cookies next door).  I digress, and promise NOT to use anything Momo as a reference point.  On to the main thrust of this post. Last week I had the pleasure of dining at Lupa, originally a project of the Batali-Bastianich restaurant team.  Back in the day it was pretty heavily managed by those guys,  and later Mark Ladner–heavy names in the food scene.  But now it’s a little more of the radar, Molto Mario is usually at Babbo, Otto, and sometimes Del Posto, while the real gems–Lupa and Dave Pasterneck’s Esca–are still busy joints but definitely don’t have that star-powered appeal.

All that being said, Lupa is a really charming place.  I dined at the bar–something I prefer as a back of house employee because 1) I’m closer to the alcohol that I so adore, and 2) Table service, refilling water, etc., turns me off, and I prefer the informality of dining at the bar.  Lupa is bustling place, with exposed wood panels, plain white tablecloths, a modern rock soundtrack, and very knowledgeable servers.  The wine list was robust, 100% Italian wines, my companion is a wine collector so I let him take care of our order; we had two bottles, each priced at or around $40, and both were excellent.  The menu is largely in italian but contains a glossary, a feature that I normally find offensive, because I think that the majority of diners just want Italian food but don’t necessarily speak Italian.  At Lupa it contributes to the informal, family-style atmosphere.  Bottom line here is that the energy of the place is relaxed, informal, and very friendly, which, for me, is a huge upside.  But often times that upside means that the food is subpar, especially at Italian restaurants.  When I say “chicken parm” how many of you think “Papa Gino’s”?

The food at Lupa was absolutely on point.  The menu beign divided into Antipasto, primi, secondi, and dessert, we started with the Affetati Piccolo.  It is basically a charcuterie plate with a lot of house-cured items.  The one item out of five that we didn’t like was the Headcheese (testa)–not because it is offal, in fact I love the texture of head cheese– but because it was overwhelmingly flavored with cinnamon.  After that everything on the plate was a hit.  Prosciutto di Parma will always be good, and as much as I hate to say it was a throwaway, it had the least complex flavor of all the meats on this platter.  A smoked ham (Speck) was excellent, as were the Salumi and Coppa, each a garlicky and fatty slice made in house.  But the star of the show was the Lingua–strips of tender veal’s tongue, marinated in grapefruit and onion.  This one just popped, a perfect balance of sharp acidity from the citrus, earthy, funky sweetness from the tongue itself, and a gentle heat from the onion.  Served on a piece of parchment atop a bread board, the only thing this selection lacked was a couple slices of country bread to clear the palate, although bread would fill the stomach in lieu of a pasta course.  If the cured seafood platter is anything like this plate, the antipasto section of the menu is spot on, certainly more pleasant than a lot of tapas-style food in NYC right now that leaves a huge salt-stain on the palate.

The Primi section of the menu is primarily pastas, a specialty at Lupa.  I opted for the Linguini with Cardoon and Razor Clam.  Really well seasoned dish, a little heat, a lot of bright acidity, and a nice earthy, ocean flavor from the cardoon and razor clam (though there were only two pieces of clam in mine).  We also ordered the Ricotta Gnocchi with fennel sausage–a classic Italian dish, house made sausage and creamy ricotta surrounding a bowl of pillowy gnocchi.  The emphasis in this section of the menu is on big, bold flavors and not big, bold portions.  Pastas shine here, particularly those made in house.

For mains we had the Saltimbocca and the Duck Agro Dolce, a tuesday night special.  The Saltimbocca was well cooked but in the end was kind of a boring presentation, a pounded veal cutlet with prosciutto and cheese, breaded and cooked to mid rare, with no garnish to balance that flavor and texture.  If anything at Lupa was reminiscent of a run of the mill Italian restaurant, it was this dish–not for its seasoning or the way it was cooked, but for the concept itself.  I won’t say don’t order it, but it wasn’t my favorite.  The duck, though, was out of this world good.  A half duck, crispy on the outside, juicy and tender on the inside, glazed up in a sweet and sour (not like Mickey D’s in a cup but a real agro dolce sauce), with a little radicchio to cut the fat and sweet.  We are pretty sure the duck was held in  CVap at a perfect temp, and then seared–it was too tender to have been cooked in an oven, and not tender enough at the joints to have been a confit.  Regardless, it was an excellent choice.

We finished with a selection of three cheeses and a concord grape sorbetto; I typically do not appreciate a cheese course but the semi soft local (upstate NY) cheeses were a nice finish.  Were it not for the second bottle of wine, I would describe the cheeses in detail, but you’ll just have to find out for yourselves.

Overall, this was a really good dining experience.  One person could easily eat two courses and be full; three is a hungry man’s dinner, and antipasto, primi, and secondi, along with dessert may have been overkill.  That said, the total bill, including tip, was $230.  Which, for the quality of the food, the location (bleecker @ houston), and the two bottles of wine, seems like a pretty good price to me.

Recommended dishes:  Antipasto platters (esp. house made items) ; House-made pastas; Duck Agrodolce; fish entrees