When I first moved to NYC over 15 years ago, Lupa was one of the first "fancy" Italian restaurants I had been to. This was before the celebrity chef craze and I didn't even know who Mario Batali was, but I had heard that this was a terrific authentic Italian place downtown. Now fast forward to when everyone and their mother wants to be a celeb chef and Mario is practically a household name, but Lupa still stands the test of time as being a really fantastic homey Italian place. In fact, the day I was there, Mario was actually there in the restaurant (orange crocs and all).
I met up with my friend Gary who I hadn't seen in years for a long leisurely lunch before I started my new job. Apparently Gary is a regular there, so he knew the GM and the bartender there. We went on a Tuesday because that's apparently when they have a duck special. But first, we started with prosciutto and salumi ($20). The prosciutto was sliced perfectly paper thin with the right amount of fat to meat on there. Delicious. The salumi was also a great slice of meat - thicker and saltier but still wonderful. After gorging on that, we split two kinds of pastas: Cacio e Peppe ($16) and the Casarecce with short rib ragu ($19). It was a nice balance of a non-red sauce and red sauce pasta. Both were simple yet perfectly executed in both texture and flavor. But this did make me realize that I'm much more of a red sauce pasta kind of gal. The short rib ragu was delicious - moist pieces of short rib cooked to perfection. Honestly, we could have stopped eating there and I would have been a happy gal. But we were here for the duck ($25), so the duck we got. I didn't really think about what it would look like but I had expected it to be some kind of sliced version. But instead we each got an entire fucking duck! It was served whole bone-in with the skin on served extra crispy. I was shocked by how much food it was. It made me incredibly sad that I couldn't finish the entire thing but the parts that I did eat were incredible. Juicy meat and crispy skin - what more could you ask for? Duck can go bad easily but when it's done right, it's really a fantastic meat.
The only downside of the meal was the dessert. You'd think that an Italian restaurant would have fantastic dessert and I probably should have skipped it anyways, but we got the chocolate-hazelnut Tartufo ($10) which was just ok. I've never really loved tartufo but I was surprised at how skimpy the dessert menu was - not a tiramisu in sight!
Overall, this was a lovely reminder that some old stand-bys are still great. The best part about going for a late lunch was that it was super quiet and easy to get a table. The staff was incredibly friendly and warm to us (probably because Gary spends so much time there). If you haven't been to Lupa in a while, I would definitely recommend revisiting it again soon. Total bill: ~$500 for 2 with tax, tip and lots of drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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