Taking classic Italian comfort food and delivering it with flair.
The team at Renwick Hospitality Group delivers yet another delicious addition to the New York City food scene. Having opened high-rated restaurants like ART SoHo, ART Midtown, Lindens, and Foxtail, they have recently opened up Lulla, located in the heart of Chelsea. The intention of opening Lulla is to serve dishes that are inspired by classic Italian cuisine but with a modern flair.
When walking into Lulla, you immediately taken with how large the restaurant is. They adorn the high ceilings with colorful lighting fixtures, making Lulla feel large and grande. The décor in the Lulla dining room is playful and has modern art déco fixtures that breath life into the space. And paired with the large winds that allow the sunlight to pour in makes the dining area feel warm and inviting. There was a lot of intention and thought put behind the Lulla dining area and in every corner we looked at, we found something to admire.
Lulla’s cocktail menu features an array of cocktails that take inspiration from the classics. The sections of the menu are divided into ‘Spritz & Highballs,’ ‘Negronis, Old Fashioned, & Martinis,’ and ‘Sours, Punches, & More.’ Lulla offers the classics as you would know them, but where his drink menu shines is how they prepare their signature cocktails. There is a level of playfulness in creating these items, from the names all the way to the ingredients. We have never seen a drink feature ‘electrified watermelon’ before but just with that ingredient alone drew us in. For drinks, we ordered the Watermelon Spritz, the Cherry Coke Boulevardier, and the Honeydew Negroni. The Watermelon Spritz features an electrified watermelon ingredient, and it did not disappoint. The spritz was so light and airy from the club soda and prosecco. And those bubbles burst when met with the watermelon which brightened up your palate and created this cool sweetness to it that kept you coming back for more. The drink didn’t even feel like it had alcohol in it which made is so tasty and easy to go back to.
For the people that enjoy a more spirit forward cocktail, we cannot recommend the Honeydew Negroni and the Cherry Coke Boulevardier enough. The Honeydew Negroni’s base spirit was Patron Blanco Tequila instead of the usual gin, which gave the drink a nice subtle sweetness from the agave. That sweetness helped stress the flavors from the St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur and the Honeydew and helped bring the essence of the melon out. It fairly balanced the drink as the Carpano Dry helped bring the flavors back and didn’t let the abundance of sweetness overwhelm the drink.
But our favorite cocktail was the Cherry Coke Boulevardier. With the name alone, we have a certain expectation of what notes we were going to get. Made with Old Forester Bourbon, Campari, Punt E Mes, Cherry Cordial, and Kola Nut, this drink sported the essence of that classic cherry coke we all know. The drink has beautiful notes of cherry from the cordial and is met with a prominent kola taste that feels just like the soda. Both those ingredients marry beautifully with the oak and caramel notes from the bourbon, which balances out that sweetness. The Campari also adds a nice hint of bitter orange peel and a few baking spices that complement the cherry notes in the drink. The drink feels like an elevated whiskey coke and brings amazing dimension and flavor profiles to the drink.
For food, we were first brought the signature Apertivo Bites, which is an assortment of Italian bites made for two. The dishes featured include the House Focaccia, Marinated Olives, Giardineria, ‘Nduja Crostini, Panzanella, Spiced Nuts, Polpette, and Crispy Fingerling Potatoes. They include all of this for just $26, making it the perfect item to start your meal. Some standouts of this included the House Focaccia, which was so fluffy and had a bunch of fresh herbs on top. There were beautiful notes of garlic that added a nice kick to the bread and, paired with the seasoned olive oil, made this bread burst with flavor. Another favorite with the Polpette, which is another name for an Italian meatball. The meatball was so moist inside and incredibly juicy. The pairing of the tomato sauce added a wonderful sweetness that paired well with the savoriness of the meatball, making for the perfect bite. And the last standout part of the box was the Spiced Nuts. We were not expecting to enjoy nuts the way we did, but these nuts were next level. The first few notes you get are a subtle sweetness that plays with the nuttiness of the dish. But as the flavors rest on your palate, you get a nice warmth and heat from the nuts that make your mouth water. It reminded us of an elevated take of the roasted nuts you would find on a New York City street, which was very welcome for us. They can also order many of these items from the main menu in a larger portion. So, if there is an item that you love, you can order it as a starter too.
For our mains, we opted for the Spicy Lamb Ragu and the Branzino main. The Spicy Lamb Ragu dish is one of Lulla’s signature dishes that we had to try. The pasta was mint pappardelle which was cooked in a nice al dente texture. The delicate lamb ragu was so tender and juicy and the pasta absorbed every little drop of sauce it had. The sweetness of the tomatoes was prominent but had a deep savory taste to it as well. One highlight was the bursts of umami flavor we got with each bite, developed from the careful slow cooking the lamb did in the tomato and red wine sauce. The Bronzino was another incredible dish that we had the privilege of trying. Paired with a delicious and bright salsa verde, the Bronzino was cooked perfectly. The skin on the fish was so crispy and light that it felt like a thin chip. And underneath that perfectly crisp skin was a moist and delicate fish that was so tender it practically melted in our mouths. The sauce added a nice acidic brightness to the dish that helped keep the fish light but balanced out some of that sweetness to it.
Our lasting thoughts of Lulla were that this restaurant is an example of how to treat Italian cuisine right. Each dish had roots in classic Italian dishes, but the execution added new elements that brought these dishes to the modern world. The cocktails were delicious and we would come back solely to those alone. The apertivo box for two is a must-have and has the perfect selection of bites to pick at. And the main dishes were phenomenal. The branzino is still on our minds and the lamb ragu pasta dish was a testament to how treating the ingredients with the respect it needs leads to a balanced and complex dish.
