“Pasta is something you’re always going to want to eat,” Lupa chef Naz Hassan tells Broadsheet. It’s hard to argue. At Lupa, a new Highbury restaurant from locals Ed Templeton (co-founder of Carousel) and actor Theo James (The White Lotus, The Gentlemen), you’ll find Hassan on the hobs validating his argument with plate after plate of bucatini all’amatriciana.
The 28-seat space is light and airy, decked out with clusters of candle-topped wooden tables. Bottles of dark, sticky amari line a sturdy set of shelves crafted by Herb Palmer, who’s based on Blackhorse Road. When Broadsheet visits the day before Lupa’s first service, final tweaks are being made to the short and considered menu of Roman comfort-food classics.
There’s a carbonara – and it’s scrupulously Roman. “We’re doing a classic carbonara. No cream or peas or unnecessary anglicisms,” Templeton tells Broadsheet. “It’s a beautiful, light, slick dish that will hopefully change people’s perspectives of what a carbonara is.”
Lupa’s origin story starts where so many great origin stories do: in a Highbury antenatal class. “Theo and I met a couple of years ago through our wives,” says Templeton. “We’ve got kids the same age. Theo and his wife, Ruth, are both very interested in restaurants as punters and have lived in Highbury for the last 15 years. I’ve always had a hankering to open a neighbourhood restaurant and we started chatting from there.”
Interiors are a family affair, with touches from James, Templeton and their wives, actors Ruth Kearney and Georgia Maguire. Features like the Victorian joinery above the large windows and the original hand-painted sign outside have been preserved to retain the character of the space, which was once an Italian deli.
Hassan, who was raised in Milan, has cooked at tentpole restaurants like Clipstone, Bibi and Pidgin. Assisting him is pastry chef Alessandro Boscolo, a Torino native who has brought his technical precision to Bibi, Sketch and The Cadogan. While the concept of a Torinesi and a Milanese cooking Roman food together might be surprising to some Italians (and sacrilege to others), Lupa is the fulfillment of a long-held desire.
“In Italy there is a big rivalry between Milan and Rome,” says Hassan. “It’s one of the biggest rivalries, football-wise and food-wise. I’ve always wanted to open a pasta restaurant, though, and Rome represents the most famous pasta of Italy. You have cacio e pepe, carbonara, amatriciana – the iconic pastasciutta that everyone recognises.”
All three of those Roman classics are on the menu. Alongside the pastas are classic Roman dishes such as fiori di zucca (courgette flowers stuffed with anchovy and burrata); carciofi alla romana (artichokes braised in white wine, olive oil and garlic); patate alla romana (Roman-style cheesy baked potatoes); and suppli al telefono (Rome’s hot and cheesy answer to a Sicilian arancino). The dolci selection – what Templeton calls Lupa’s “secret weapon” – includes an exemplary tiramisu alongside under-the-radar Roman hits such as freshly baked crostata del giorno and bigne di san Giuseppe (choux fritters piped with pastry cream).
“We want to capture that rustic essence of Roman food,” says Templeton, who lived in Rome in his early twenties. “There are many excellent fine dining restaurants there, but ultimately, it’s not an elevated cuisine. It’s intentionally about hearty, delicious, fun cooking.”
For secondi, you’ll see thick slabs of crisp-skinned porchetta coming off the pass as well as abbacchio al scottadito, an Italian-meets-Tayyabs take on lamb chops. On Arsenal game days, there are plans to serve takeaway porchetta sandwiches to hungry Gooners. Serving the neighbourhood is an integral part of Lupa’s ethos.
“This little corner is just so special,” says Hassan. “It’s a real neighbourhood. I’ve worked in ‘destination’ restaurants before, but here it feels like I’m a part of the community.”
Lupa
73 Highbury Park, London N5 1UA
Hours:
Wed to Fri 5.30pm–11pm
Sat midday–11pm
Sun midday–10pm