Eager and elegant don't seem conducive bedfellows, but the team behind Lupa in Highbury have brought Milan to Wilton Way in quite the flurry.
Named after the famous singer Ornella Vanoni, the restaurant boasts a team including its own splash of Hollywood, with Theo James (actor) teaming up with Ed Templeton and Naz Hassan to focus on head chef Hassan's home-region and early professional stomping ground. Ed welcomes us in and explains the hurry to open (more on that later) and the desire for this specific 48-cover dining room, hiding in the leafy Victoriana of Hackney Downs.
The night is in their favour; we round the corner and there perches prettily the cornflower shopfront, little benches peplum out and stylish lamps caress the buzzing smokers and air takers. Inside is dark wood wainscoting, cloth-alien-egg lamps and mid-century modern cool. The wall of good-time sounds braces us on entry as people smile and bellow between the dancing candles.
The aim is an upmarket everything restaurant, a proper neighbourhood watering hole, a treat - but not too much of a stretch.
Pop in for a Botivo and rhubarb spritz or its alcoholic twin a rhubarb Americano. Nibble on warm and precisely crisped (just the rim) focaccia or choose from the three salamis from Chido, the speciality meat-movers. Sit by the window, natter and nibble to your hearts content, slowly stewing in friendship and ... well, sauce.
But if you burrow too deep and get peckish, the Alpine region has you covered. For two dishes almost force you to cross forks romantically with your guest, gazing into their limpid pools as you dive for that last chunk of veal. Saffron risotto swings out almost unsettlingly yellow, red strands of those precious stamen punching up each mouthful.
The veal 'elephant's ear' Milanese comes with a bone sticking out of it, a coral shelf of pounded and battered meat, with whipped mash and a pinkish mayo. If you are in the sharing way, a whole baked branzino (seabass) also can be pickled and plundered in beurre blanc and preboggin (wild herbs).
The tidy antipasti are equally charming; don't miss the sea bream tartare (basically ceviche) in a pool of candied sauce, a kiss of lemon and chunks of pear. Roasted vegetables sott'olio (under oil) and vitello tonnato is most likely treated correspondingly carefully.
I'm not much of a pasta-person, however, the tagliolini with Roscoff onion broth, and squares of cheese toast to mop is my kind of dish - with a light, simple sauce, easily and all too quickly slurped away. There is also penne with (and the signature dish) tagliatelle, alpine butter and 36 month aged parmesan.
Mille foglie with its hard/lusciously soft contradiction sits like Peach's Castle next to a slab of slightly wobbling Bunet chocolate crème caramel, dark and brooding and very mature. Herbal Garibaldi are a must for those wanting a screwball without the screw, and the wine selection is carefully curated with a whole page of grapey lovelies.
So far, so chic, and with some sharing dishes coming out at £16 per person it is not as wince-making as you might think. However, Ed admits that they have only had friends and family in the last two days, and that they may have slightly rushed. It's hard to disagree: a trip to the toilet means visiting Fran's wine bar down the road, there is no coffee machine (sacrilegious surely?) or tonic water.
The smell of fresh paint is notable, and the noise is amplified by the bare yet stylish walls. Lastly, a £1 cover charge for unlimited filtered water is automatically added to the bill, surely an early-opening typo that will be retracted when ardent tap-water fans start kicking off?
Yet in their haste they have not forgotten the tenets of sublime cooking and restaurant stagecraft. I know I will return and return, to be dazzled by the wonders of Italy's second city (depending on what metrics you use) and the warmth the guys have briskly and mightily summoned.
Ornella
1 Wilton Way
E8 1BG
