Burrata and crisp octopus are tasty starters at Lupetto.
Lupetto
There’s no doubt that a wood-fired oven can impart delectable nuances to certain foods. By the same token, some cooks overdue the amount of smoke for some meats and fish that robs them of their essential flavors. Fortunately, no such error is committed at Lupetto, which means “little wolf,” a new Italian restaurant located in NoMad.
The food mimics that of the rustic hearth cooking in Italy, although Lupetto’s ovens are far more refined and modulated. Restaurateur Mark Barak and chef-partner Michael Berardino add a lightly smoked luster to everything from pizzas to meats and fish from an open kitchen while keeping the classics squarely on the menu.
A trim bar leads to a moderately sized dining area t Lupetto
Lupetto
The 175-seat space (with a downstairs room called Sotto with 40 seats) is dominated by a long bar and center divider, with a good deal of polished wood, by Parts and Labor Design. There are tables up front and a dining room to the rear that could use more light to make the menu easier to read and do justice to the colors of the food.
What the room does not need is the bombast of thudding bass and bashing drums—whatever music it is you won’t be able to identify—which is the polar opposite of what a rustic trattoria anywhere in Italy would have, which is no music at all. Oddly enough, about 9:30, when Lupetto started to empty out, they played some old Italian pop music, which was fun to hear. As we finished our wine.
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Pasta aglio e filo (garlic and oil) has a nice tangy citrus touch.
Lupetto
It’s not easy choosing among so many tempting starts, but I would most recommend the tender, very flavorful arancini rice balls with tomato, saffron and smoked mozzarella ($18), and that fiery oven adds a real tasty char to the octopus with pepper relish ($22). We had to test out the Neapolitan-style pizza ($24) with fior di latte mozzarella, and it was a good one; a tad thin but sizeable enough to share.
As ever in Italian restaurants, pastas will stand out and Lupetto’s are simple with tremendous flavor. You don’t see spaghetti aglio e olio ($23) outside of Old School Italian-American trattorias, but Lupetto’s is outstanding, the pasta perfect, the amount of garlic and good olive just right and with an added tang of what I assume was lemon. Every bit as wonderful was a dish of fat bucatini all’amatriciana ($27) with sweet tomato and guanciale, onions and a hit of chile pepper.
Amatriciana is a pasta dish from Rome that is a abundant with tomato, onions, guanciale and chile.
Lupetto
The guitar-string cut called chitarra takes on an unusual sauce of Meyer lemon and sweet Bronte pistachio ($26); even more unusual was the crespelle (crêpe) stuffed with porcini mushrooms and caramelized onions layered with white bolognese béchamel sauce (28), one of my favorite pastas thus far this year.
Grass-fed ribeye is sliced for two or moe people,
Lupetto
There’s a special place on the menu for oven-roasted meats, including an exceptional thick, juicy, perfectly cooked pork porterhouse porchetta, spiced and seasoned with great authority ($44), which I hope becomes Berardino’s signature dish. He does well by a (very expensive) 16-ounce ribeye for one ($72) or two ($165) from cattle that are grass fed, as in Italy, but without the richness of USDA Prime. The ribeye for one handily serves two people, so the one for two would be enough for four.
Orata is a fine alternative to the ubiquitous branzino, and Lupetto’s wood-fire gives it a subtle flavor and keeps in the juices.
Orata takes on a subtle smokiness from the wood-burning oven.
Lupetto
The same degree of simple goodness is evident in desserts ($14) like the ricotta cheesecake, with pistachios for crunch and meringue for fun; chocolate cake with a lush mascarpone mousse and espresso glaze; and chocolate panna cottta with candied hazelnuts.
There is obviously no end to the number of good Italian trattorias that New York can absorb, and usually when I’m asked for recommendations, the request is overwhelmingly for Italian food. And in this section of Manhattan, with a lot to choose among, Lupetto would certainly leap to mind to recommend. Now, if only they’d turn down that noise!
LUPETTO
1123 Broadway
212-547-8750
Open nightly for dinner.
Dining and Cooking