Eating The Pasta

It was a beautiful day in the city yesterday, so we decided to head down to Greenwich Village last night for dinner. We thought we would chance it and see how long the wait for a table at Lupa was going to be. Although we were told 45 minutes to an hour, we decided to stick it out and wait. After a 25 minute stroll in SoHo, we gave them a call and found out our table would be ready in a couple of minutes. We hurried back and were seated within a few minutes.
Last time we were here, we had made a reservation and were seated in the back room, which is quieter and more relaxed. Last night we were seated in the front room, which is definately a more lively and active part of the restaurant. Our waitress was very nice, and answered all of our questions with no problems.
To start, we shared the artichokes marinated in olive oil, chili flakes, mint leaves, red onions and garlic. These were terrific. For our main courses, we had pastas - I had the special, which was home-made orchiette with peas, prosciutto and parmesian cheese. My wife had the ricotta gnocchi with sausage and fennel. I paired my dinner with a mini carafe of Vespa Bianco Bastianich 2002, Friuli. For dessert we split the Lupa Tartufo, which is hazelnut ice cream with pieces of biscotti in it, covered in chocolate with pieces of hazelnut on top, sitting in a chocolate sauce (not for the faint-of-chocolate). The whole meal was terrific. We love this place.

NP: The sound of the coffee machine percolating