The Chef’s Table at Lupo Verde Alimentaria Has the Best Seats in the House

The best table at the new Lupo Verde opening this week in Palisades isn’t in either of the stylish dining rooms on the top two floors. It’s tucked inside the grab-and-go market down below.

While the reservations-required chef’s table won’t be immediately available to diners when Lupo Verde Osteria (4814 MacArthur Boulevard NW) debuts on Wednesday, April 18, corporate chef Matteo Venini hopes to have the exclusive dinner service in place within a few weeks.

The chef’s table is expected to arrive in tandem with the opening of the surrounding Lupo Verde Alimentaria, the Italian market and coffee shop Lupo Verde co-founder Med Lahlou has installed in the basement of the three-story eatery. Once the market comes online next month, Venini plans to use the table to showcase select retail items during the day. “We’re going to have something to taste almost every day,” he says, pointing to shelves stocked with gourmet pasta, Nutella, 00 flour, Tuscan olive oil, cans of sun-dried tomatoes, and more.

In the evenings, the table will be available for a single booking (six to eight people) featuring a nine-course tasting menu ($120 to $140 per person). Matteo says the menu will be different than what is served that day in the main restaurant. And he plans to honor all manner of special requests. “Vegan, welcome. Gluten-free, welcome. Whatever restriction you have, you are welcome,” Venini says.

Each level of the new restaurant was coordinated by interior designer Tracy Morris. The 3,200-square-foot space features an outdoor patio; the subterranean alimentaria, which is wrapped in white tile; a main dining room with a marble-topped bar and seating for 45 customers; an upstairs dining room with seating for 50 diners; and a private dining with two large tables (eight seats apiece) that Lahlou says will be the setting for family-style dinner service on Sunday nights. Design accents sprinkled throughout include refinished wood floors; a large cabinet by the front door housing the restaurant’s collection of imported wines; plush bench seating; a rolling barn door that seals off the private dining room; and a wall studded with pieces of white wood.

Lupo Verde Osteria is projected to open for dinner only (5 p.m. to 11 p.m.) to start. Venini says daily happy hour deals — think: seasoned nuts, salami, and a “couple of fried things” — will be available from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Weekend brunch (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.) is projected to follow in early May. Regular lunch service (11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.), the chef’s table, and the opening of the market are scheduled to take place before the end of May.

Status: Scheduled to open at 5 p.m. on April 18. 4814 MacArthur Boulevard NW; website.

Scroll down to look around the new restaurant:

• The Most Anticipated Restaurants in D.C., Spring 2018 [EDC]
• Lupo Verde Founders Planning Second Location [EDC]
• Inside Lupo Verde [EDC]