Going Back To Lupa

The other night, a good friend of ours was in town for business. Luckily, we were able to meet up with him for dinner. As usual, we had no idea where to bring him to eat - we always want to make sure we bring our friends somewhere good. In the end, we decided to go to Lupa, Mario Batali's take on a Roman Trattoria. My wife and I have been there a couple of times, and have loved everything we've gotten. The only complaint I have is that we've never been served by the waitress that looks like Alice from the Brady Bunch with a Brooklyn accent ("You want meat, get some meat. You want fish, get some fish. How about some verr-derr (verdure)? That's what we call vegetables.")
This night, we decided to split a couple of appetizers 3 ways and then move on to our own main courses. We wanted to get the ricotta stuffed and deep fried zucchini blossoms, but unfortunately they were out of them. Instead, we had the escarole, walnuts, red onion & pecorino salad and the artichokes in an olive oil, red onion, garlic and mint marinade. After this, we split a pasta dish three ways - the bavette with cacio e pepe. We actually had to send the first one back because it was way too salty. The second try was much better, but honestly, not as good as we've had it before. For our main courses, I had the roasted pork "Arista," my wife had the skate and our friend had the Ligurian fish stew (it had some other name on the menu, but I don't remember what it was). Unfortunately for our friend, almost every dish on the menu that night had pork in it, and he is Jewish, so it drastically cut down his dining options. We both felt a little bad about that. For wines, we had one white while waiting for the table and with the appetizers, which I have completely forgotten the name. It was very good, however. With our main courses, we split a bottle of Gavi Di Gavi Nicola Bergaglio Piemonte Italy, 2004. We both thought it was terrific. Finally, for dessert, we split the buttermilk panna cotta with cherries, and had some espresso. Great dinner. It was also a great evening spent with a friend we don't get to see that often.