Friday afternoon we had tickets to the Whitney Museum in its new building in the Meatpacking District. So we made a lunch reservation within walking distance at Empellón Taqueria in the West Village.
Empellón is the creation of Alex Stupak, who's won accolades and awards for his avant-garde dessert creations at Alinea in Chicago and at wd~50 in New York — not a bad pedigree. At Empellón, Stupak has turned from desserts to elegant Mexican. The space is no frills, with clothless wooden tables and a long bar for both eating and drinking. It offers a mezcal heavy margarita menu, which immediately caught our collective eyes.
Mezcal - Fidencio Clasico, with fresh lime and smoked salt The margaritas were relatively small, potent and excellent. They were so good that Marlene had a repeat while I enjoyed the Guava, made with El Peloton de la Muerte mezcal and spiked with a bit of habanero. We did order food. We started with the shishito peppers and the sopes. The peppers were served in a cast iron skillet, bathed in thick gooey melted Chihuahua cheese, a soft white cow's-milk variety. We scooped the peppers and cheese into warm tortillas. A yummy dish.
Shishito peppers with melted Chihuahua cheese Marlene enjoyed the sopes more than I did. There were four to choose from; we selected the shortrib with salsa roja. The spicy meat was very good, but I felt the fried corn tortilla cups were heavy.
Shortrib sopes with salsa roja There were ten varieties of inventive tacos on the menu, that could be ordered in rounds of two or three. We ordered two lamb barbacoa and two pork tongue.
Lamb barbacoa taocs, with cucumber and salsa borracha
Beer braised pork tongue tacos, with chorizo and salsa de arbol The tacos were beautifully stuffed, so much so they were difficult to eat as tacos. The lamb was delicious, with its spicy borracha salsa, made with Pasilla peppers and the Mexican spirit Pulque (or did Stupak use beer?). The pork tongue was equally yummy in its arbol chile salsa. It included perfectly fried potato cubes, which surprisingly worked. These were easily the best and most original tacos we'd ever enjoyed. Our lunch at Empellón Taqueria was a smash success. We will definitely return; there are many more tacos to try — and many more margaritas. Our final dinner reservation was at Mario Batali's Lupa, one of our favorite lunch spots; this would be our first dinner at the restaurant. While Lupa has a common lunch/dinner menu; we've always focused on pastas at midday and were looking forward to entrées at night.
Lupa was much darker at night than by day; we were initially seated at a table so dark we couldn't read our menus and asked to be reseated. Once we could read, we ordered a Nebbiolo and the marinated sardines as an antipasti.
Marinate sardines We'd enjoyed the sardines many times in the past, and they were as good as ever. We had also hoped to order Lupa's wonderful sweetbreads, but they were not on the menu this time around. Lupa's pastas are special; they're why we keep coming back. We usually order two to share at lunch, but on this evening we controlled ourselves and ordered just one.
Sugo finto lune, with ramp butter and pecorino The lune was new on the menu. The flying saucer shaped noodles, stuffed with a vegetarian tomato sauce ragu, were good, but not the to-die-for pasta we had come to expect. For entrées, Marlene ordered the quail and I ordered the veal saltimbocca.
Quail with treviso, lime, chive and anchovy
Veal saltimbocca The quail was very good. The two meaty birds were nicely grilled and spiced. Marlene enjoyed eating the meat off the little legs. I was taken aback when the saltimbocca was placed in front of me; I thought I had been served Tom Brady's deflated football. The veal and prosciutto were dry, inseparable and very salty. Not a good dish. Lupa by night is much different than Lupa by day. It's more crowded and noisy and bustling — and they serve pigskin instead of prosciutto. We'll stick to lunch. Copyright © 2015 TwoForTheTable.com |
