It probably was a combination of several things - the strains of famed Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti playing in the background, the heaping plates of spaghetti overflowing with tomato sauce and the greetings of owner Jimmy Lupo as he circulated among the tables chatting with familiar customers - but I felt the same kind of comfort at Lupo's that was portrayed by Tony's, the little Italian restaurant characterized so warmly in Disney's "Lady and the Tramp."
Lupo's offers diners the kind of uncomplicated Italian cuisine that many of us first cut our teeth on before pasta became yuppified, tomatoes became dried and the portions shrank. Meatballs and homemade sausages are interspersed on the menu with a host of familiar items such as canneloni, tortellini, manicotti, chicken parmesan, red and white clam sauces, as well as several seafood specialties including halibut, scampi and seafood capellini.We sampled several of the dinners - each with a pleasant tomato sauce - including rigatoni, lasagna, gnocchi and veal scalopini. Dinners include soup, salad, loaves of French bread, cappuccino and spumoni ice cream. We carried out enough for dinner the next day.
Our first hint of the generous portions came with our soup course. Since we wanted to sample each of the three soups - cream of broccoli, minestrone and pasta fazool, a tomato-based soup thickened with beans - our helpful waitress brought us, not extra bowls, but rather three tureens of each. The minestrone was full of vegetables and mild; the cream of broccoli had a rich creaminess with a distinctive flavor; and, while the pasta fazool resembled more a spicier version of minestrone than its more classical interpretation, it was very good nonetheless.
There was also a bit of deviation from conventions with Papa Luppo's veal scalopini ($9.75). Rather than sauteed or breaded scallops of pounded veal, Lupo's slices the veal in small pieces and blends it in a rich tomato sauce along with lots of green peppers and mushrooms that is poured over a large bowl of linguine. The flavor is appealing, sweetened by the peppers, though we missed the larger pieces of veal.
The gnocci capricciose ($9.75), (pronounced NYOHK-kee, in case you're interested) featured a plate brimming with the little, chewy dumplings covered with a slightly sweet tomato meat sauce. Filled with ricotta cheese, the dumplings were a bit undercooked, yet flavorful. Conventional dishes such as the lasagna, spaghetti and rigatoni, met our expectations.
We were disappointed by a side of the sausage, since Lupo's also bills itself as a "sausage factory." The garlic link sausage was scorched on one side, thickening the skin, and the spicy Italian sausage patty just a bit overcooked. These were more the faults of the kitchen than the quality of the product itself, which still managed to get through to our taste buds.
The dinner salads were accented by a creamy house Italian dressing with a hint of bleu cheese. The cappuccino, a demitasse of coffee highlighted by vanilla and almond extracts and covered with whipped cream, added a nice touch to the overall meal. The spumoni was rather ordinary.
Lupo's features a modestly priced Italian dinner menu (most complete dinners average around $9) with the kind of quality and hospitality one might expect from a visit to the Italian family down the block.
Rating: ***1/2
Lupo's Italian Restaurant, 249 E. 3300 South; 466-0371. Open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner served Monday through saturday from 4 to 10:30 p.m. Italian sausage to go. Major credit cards and checks with guarantee cards accepted.