An Early Look at Isla in Merion Village and La Tavola's New Bar
Exciting changes are afoot at La Tavola and Lupo, and we share thoughts (and photos!) from our dinner at Andrew Smith's Isla.
La Tavola Adds a Bar; Lupo Shifts to Mexican
By Erin Edwards
To me, Grandview’s La Tavola (1664 W. First Ave.) is the very definition of a great neighborhood restaurant. Intimate and not flashy. The food is consistently good. It’s the kind of place where staff members hug customers.
La Tavola flies under the radar a bit, but really shouldn’t given its homemade pastas and dedication to seasonal ingredients. If you’ve gotten distracted by all the new restaurant openings in Columbus of late, I recommend you revisit this 11-year-old rustic Italian restaurant as well as its 8-year-old Upper Arlington sibling, Lupo, because there have been some significant changes of late.
In May, La Tavola rather quietly added a 900-square-foot bar alongside its dining room, taking over part of the dry cleaner next door. Chef-owner Rick Lopez told me the project has been in the works for two years. The bar includes 14 bar seats and three booths with space to add more.
During my recent dinner there, I loved that two black-and-white movies—"Breathless" and "Roman Holiday"—were playing on the TVs behind the bar. I also loved that La Tavola now has featured cocktails to pair with its already fine Italian wine list. “We've seen a big increase in not only [spirits], but wine sales, too,” Lopez says.
The chef says he has also purchased a Moretti Forni pizza oven from Italy, an electric pizza oven that cooks like a wood-burning oven, giving them the ability to turn around pizzas in two minutes thanks to the 850-degree oven.
“Something we've been working on for a couple months here [is] to get the dough right,” Lopez says, adding that he’s using Italian bottled water and Italian flour. “We start with a biga, an Italian starter, and it gets those [dark] spots around the crust. You know, it's not really about the wood in a pizza oven, it's the temperature that is the difference maker.”
Meanwhile, there have been big changes at Lupo (2124 Arlington Ave.) as well. In addition to a handsome patio extension, Lupo has new direction in the kitchen. Chef Todd Elder, who ran the Lupo kitchen for over seven years, recently left to make a career change. Joining the Lupo team is chef Courtney Nielsen, whose resume includes Goodale Station and The Keep Kitchen & Liquor Bar.
Nielsen is overseeing a major menu overhaul at Lupo, which started out with Spanish/Mediterranean leanings and is now diving into more of a Mexican-inspired menu. Think: carne asada, octopus al pastor, birria tacos and more.
“We just decided to do the La Tavola philosophy on Mexican food. We're grinding heirloom corn from Mexico to make our own tortillas and utilizing seasonal ingredients,” Lopez says.
You can expect chef Nielsen to roll out her first menu at Lupo sometime early this month.
Notes
Around the Columbus Food & Drink Scene
After an 18-year run, the Campus-area Korean and sushi restaurant Diaspora is closing at 2118 N. High St. on July 3. It will be replaced by Arkansas-based 7 Brew Coffee, according to The Columbus Dispatch. An Instagram announcement posted by Raymond Kim, the son of Diaspora’s owners, reads in part: “We’ve made the difficult decision to accept our landlord’s offer to end our lease early. While this chapter is coming to a close, we’re hopeful for the future and committed to staying part of the Columbus community in new ways.”
On Monday, Easton Town Center welcomed Bar Italia to its growing family of restaurants. The NYC-inspired Italian concept from the owner of Lindey’s now has five locations total in Ohio and Florida. Bar Italia is located at at 4145 The Strand W., formerly Smith & Wollensky’s. You can expect menu items such as beef carpaccio, arancini, wood-fired pizzas, bucatini pomodoro, 24-layer lasagna, branzino, veal Marsala and more. The restaurant is open daily for lunch and dinner.
Isla is the Best New Restaurant That Might Not be for Everyone
By Andy Dehus
I’ll admit my biases right off the bat: I’ve known Isla’s chef/co-owner Andrew Smith for well over a decade. I’ve adored his cooking to the extent that I’ve worked with him on both at-home dinners with friends as well as a number of Food Adventures-related experiences. I think he’s one of the kindest, humblest and most personable characters in the restaurant industry, and have nothing but admiration for everything that he and his wife, Devoney Mills, have done together.
Like I said, biased. Really biased.