Chef Roberto Peloni aims to serve traditional Italian fare at Al Lupo Ristorante
When he first moved to Cincinnati, Roberto Peloni joined a handful of his friends at a local Italian restaurant. Expecting a traditional experience, Peloni was disappointed once the food arrived.
“They served me a bowl of overcooked pasta,” he says. “When I asked for Parmesan cheese, the waiter pulled a pack of it out of his apron.”
It was perhaps this experience that best encapsulates Peloni’s mission with Al Lupo Ristorante, his second venture in the region, following Rodi Italian in Loveland. Opening in November in the old Rookwood Pottery Building in Mt. Adams, Peloni says, “I wanted to make sure that I really steered into the traditions and the forgotten classics of Italian food.”
Featuring a menu of Northern Italian dishes, Peloni says that guests are unlikely to find these foods anywhere else in the city. The cacciucco, for example, is a rustic Tuscan seafood stew in a tomato broth. Meanwhile, the carbonara is made the traditional way—without cream and served at room temperature.
While these dishes may not be the versions many expect, Peloni says that he hopes the menu can serve not only as a sample of what’s coming out of kitchens in Italy, but also a history lesson of the peninsula. Milan, a capital of trade and culture since the Middle Ages, has seen an influx of food from other cultures thanks to its position on the Silk Road and proximity to other nations.
As such, guests may be surprised to find curry powder used as a meat rub or a lack of traditional red sauce. “There is nowhere else in the city that you can get a lot of these things,” says Brennan Kamp, general manager and proprietor. “Even the pasta shapes, just because the pasta is handmade in the restaurant. They extrude it right in front of everybody.”
Housed in the former Rookwood Pottery factory, the restaurant keeps the space’s past life at the forefront. For example, three large kilns dominate the room, which guests can dine inside. “When we found this place, right when we walked in, we both looked around and looked at each other and went, ‘This is it,’” Kamp says. “It all made sense.”
“Rookwood Pottery used to create a product that could only be made here. We’re making
sure that those philosophies that [they] put in place stay with what we do now,” Peloni says. “So, for me, I can give this food and this education and be creative, the same as they did for pottery. … They found ways to teach and educate, so I’ve done the same thing.”
Al Lupo Ristorante, 1077 Celestial St., Cincinnati. M Closed, Tu-Th 5-9:30 p.m., F-Sa 5-10 p.m., Su 5-8:30 p.m. 513-937-5876, lupocincy.com.
