Lupa

We have been trying to get together with Alan and Janet for months now. Today, finally, after coordinating our schedules weeks out, we finally met at Lupa for lunch. Lupa’s one of the Batali restaurant empire, specializing in “Roman trattoria fare” and other than being located in the West Village of NYC, it came pretty darn close.
We started with two of the special antipasti, one a prosciutto role with cheese that was breaded and fried into a small croquette. They were mighty tasty though Chris thought they may have been left in the fryer a little too long. The other special appetizer, was a small salad of some greens – the name escapes me, but if Janet stops by, perhaps she’ll remember; they’re her favorite. We also had an assortment of their house-made meats, some coppa cotto, salumi, lingua (aka tongue), a house-cured pancetta – and hmm…the last one escapes me, to go along with this we had a Primitivo – the Majara perhaps.

For our primi (actually we only had primi – it was lunch after all), Chris had the Buccatini Amatriciana, Janet and Alan had the house special which was a tagliatelle with a braised pork shoulder and porcini mushroom ragu (with some wilted greens), and I had a buckwheat chitarra pasta with Cavolo Nero. To drink with all this we upped the strength a bit and went with a Barbera, the Moccagatta – yummy. The pastas were good with decent portion size – though I must say, if you have an aversion to salt, this may not be the place for you.

Dessert, Alan and Janet split the tartufo, which I’m assuming they liked; they cleaned the plate – Chris and I opted for an espresso and macchiato, respectively, since we’re continuing the party tonight – we needed to save some room. Our bill came to about $137 per couple (if I recall correctly) including tip and tax, but considering the quality and quantity of the food and wine, I didn’t think it too bad at all.

And of course, I forgot to snap pictures of the food but I did get this (Chris’s empty bowl):