She-Wolf (Lupa)

First off, let me get out of the way that my umbrella was stolen here—and it was raining buckets! Bad way to end the evening, finding that your umbrella (which was a gift) has been taken, leaving you to face a cold and rainy night unprotected. People please, stop taking my umbrellas and jackets!

But to get to the food… I was able to get a reservation at Lupa for 7:30 a night before the evening I wanted to eat there—a great stroke of luck as someone had just cancelled their reservation before I phoned. I got there early and waited at the bar, where I ordered the poppa (vodka, fresh orange juice, and seltzer)—the freshly squeezed orange juice really makes a difference. It was very good. The bartender chatted up the regulars and answered with ease all questions newcomers had. At about 7:45 the restaurant began to get much more crowded.

Once we took our table, we perused the extensive menu and didn’t realize until after we grilled our waitress about selections that there is a glossario on the back of the menu, which if found earlier would have spared the waitress some time. But she was very gracious and obviously knew the menu well—not just having memorized what dishes were composed of but could describe their taste and texture. With her help I decided on the pork shoulder with rose water glaze—very good choice. The meat was tender, fell apart at the touch of a fork, and the glaze was sweet and flavorful and the dry rub added just the right amount of spice. The rather large cube of meat was served alongside a cucumber salad, which served as a great balance and palate cleanser to the meatiness of the pork.

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself here—we started by sharing three antipasti amongst the four of us—the brussel sprouts (served raw, which was unexpected, but they were good and tasty), the baccala (salted cod with lemon dressing, olives, and capers), and the escarole salad (served with walnuts and shredded cheese)—each showed off the flavor of the ingredients without over embellishment and served well as starters.

The market fish of the day was a wild striped bass filet—it was juicy and sweet with a meaty texture. The trout was served whole and topped with a parsley and olive salad—it was crisp and salty (in a good way). The pasta of the day, the fettuccine with pork ragu, was hearty and flavorful with perfectly al dente noodles. We rounded out the meal with the tartufo (hazelnut gelato encased in a chocolate shell)—it was sweet, which is what people want in dessert, but I did feel like they could have gone with a darker chocolate to let the bitterness balance out the sweetness of the gelato.

Overall it was a good dining experience, though it was somewhat loud and I had to struggle at times to hear the person diagonally across from me. I had hesitated to go to a Batali restaurant as a friend who was a chef said the food wasn’t that great and my Casa Mono experience backed that (everything was overly salted there). But Lupa makes me want to try other Batali restaurants. Though their security may be lacking, their service definitely is not. This dinner was to celebrate two of the four diners birthdays, which I made known to the receptionist upon arrival—she kindly relayed the information to the server and when the tartufi came out, each was topped with a birthday candle. I really felt as though the servers treated us as if we were regulars there (though it was the first time for all of us)--a rarity in NYC restaurants, especially in ones that are so busy.