a terrific trattoria from a White Lotus star

It was 1am when the chef Naz Hassan stumbled dwelling from the Christmas social gathering at Carousel in Fitzrovia, central London, the place he was working quickly. He woke his girlfriend and advised her he was going to open a brand new restaurant with an actor. He remembers her groggy reply: “Fall asleep. You’re drunk, you’re dreaming. Neglect about it.”

Now he has executed precisely that, launching a neighbourhood Roman osteria with Theo James, the good-looking 40-year-old Brit you’ll have seen in The Gents, The White Lotus, The Time Traveler’s Spouse or the Divergent trilogy.

It’s a sweltering day after I first go to Lupa, a couple of days earlier than the opening. All of the doorways and home windows are open and other people wander previous, gawping at James, who’s hiding underneath a baseball cap. However others are leaning their heads too: a neighborhood gossiping concerning the reality this place was a shoe store; a teenage woman searching for a waitressing job; a mourner from a funeral throughout the highway, looking for a last-minute mortgage of a Bluetooth speaker.

All this makes Lupa really feel like a correct native restaurant — a far cry from the silver display. But it’s a well-trodden path from movie to hospitality. James’s director in The Gents, Man Ritchie, has a pub. However James has lengthy yearned for his personal place. “I’ve at all times cherished meals, at all times cherished eating places,” he says.

His probability got here when his spouse, Ruth, met a lady at a neighborhood child group who occurred to be married to Ed Templeton — an skilled restaurateur who runs Carousel. With their shared love of meals (and of Rome) it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the 2 males additionally grew to become mates.

They have been having a drink in Templeton’s backyard when James talked about that he’d at all times fancied opening an Italian. And now they’ve. Hassan was recruited at that Christmas social gathering. “Naz is aware of the historical past of each ingredient and the pathway to it,” James says proudly.

Once I return to eat every week or so later, the restaurant is packed. The well-known face behind it clearly hasn’t damage publicity-wise. Lupa is small and easy: white partitions, wood tables. The one decorations on the partitions are wine bottles and a few understated bits of recent artwork from the Jameses’ front room.

The meals is fairly genuine however they’ve made the recipes a bit lighter to appease fragile London palates. Fried courgette flower full of burrata is remarkably delicate. These typically get mushy, however right here the batter is gentle and agency. A salty anchovy sauce eliminates any greasy style.

Alongside now we have tomato carpaccio with capers, lemon zest and fried breadcrumbs. These are riccio fiorentino tomatoes, Hassan explains with evangelical enthusiasm. He’ll change the variability as we transfer via the season to make sure he at all times has the sweetest fruit.

We take cured meats and squacquerone cheese — virtually thick yoghurt — with deep-fried dough balls. Ask Hassan how he selected every meat — however solely you probably have two hours to spare.

The kitchen is laughably tiny. You possibly can see it via a niche within the wall, three cooks in a room the dimensions of a wardrobe. However such scrumptious issues maintain rising — completely al dente pasta, an amatriciana that’s contemporary and light-weight, a deeply savoury pesto.

That mentioned, I’m not a fan of the carbonara. There’s an excessive amount of sauce, making the entire thing too wealthy. It tastes extra Italian-American than Italian-Italian. Nonetheless, carbonara is a private factor. Everybody has a barely totally different, very insistent opinion on the true path. I’d should battle off a thousand Italian grandmothers to defend mine.

Lastly, porchetta. It’s exceptional — the sweetest, juiciest meat surrounded by astonishing crackling. No person else in London does porchetta this effectively. Templeton talks us spherical to tiramisu. Oh, go on then, and amaros for the desk. The espresso within the tiramisu is old fashioned, correctly bitter, however the dish nonetheless candy and comforting.

“We wished to do a restaurant — though they are going to most likely by no means come — that our youngsters wish to eat in,” James says. One thing “complicated but additionally Roman consolation meals”. He’s hit the mark right here.
★★★★☆
73 Highbury Park, London N5 1UA; lupa.restaurant