Scott Pickett’s new Italian restaurant Lupo in Collingwood misses the mark
Chef Scott Pickett has turned Collingwood’s Saint Crispin into mod Italian Lupo but this zeitgeisty restaurant serving up a forgettable spanner crab lasagne is just a sheep in wolf’s clothing, writes Dan Stock.
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Scott Pickett opened his first restaurant in 2011: a little Northcote bolt hole known as Estelle.
It quickly found acclaim for its accessible, affordable degustation menu and heralded a period of ambitious growth for the chef-restaurateur.
Saint Crispin followed, opening in Collingwood in 2013.
Estelle expanded, then became a bistro, while the high-end Estelle by Scott Pickett opened next door.
A deli and rotisserie also bearing his name at the Queen Vic Market followed, Saint Crispin had an overhaul and the fire-powered Matilda opened in South Yarra.
ESP closed, Estelle became a wine bar and bistro and Saint Crispin became an odd co-branded incubator space only to be reborn this month as Italian restaurant, Lupo.
It’s always billed as evolution, but with all this fancy footwork something’s bound to give.
Maybe Scott needs to burn some sage to rid the madeover, stripped back Smith St space of the lingering scent of the misguided talent show that was the Broadsheet Kitchen.
Because at this early stage, his new offering is equally unformed.
Lupo — which means wolf in Italian — sips from the 2019 Melbourne Zeitgeist cup, with seemingly every second opening this year looking, yet again, to Italy for inspiration.
But when even the name is derivative — there is the bustling Lupino on Little
Collins St that’s been doing the Italian bistro thing to quietly winning effect since 2011 — one can’t help but feel this whole package has been cobbled together at pace.
I don’t subscribe to the notion you need to have three generations of this-is-the-only-way-to-make-agnolotti beaten into you to cook Italian in Melbourne today.
But this bitzer that incorporates French techniques learnt in London teamed with native Australian ingredients tastes like Elle Macpherson’s accent: posh but wrong.
Pasta is the main focus of the tight carte that starts with a selection of antipasti that includes little toast fingers spread with spicy nduja and topped with anchovy ($8 for 2) and a generous fritto misto.
Made up of artichoke, tiny whitebait, crunchy head-on prawns and a frilly mustard leaf among others all in a lovely delicate lace of batter, it’s very tasty but the bagna cauda served alongside lacked any discernible anchovy or garlic, which is the sole point of that sauce.
You just need to look to the version at Di Stasio Citta to see what a pale facsimile this is ($19).
Also odd: gnocco fritto that are unlike the expected light crunchy golden pillows usually served with salumi and more like an oily French gougere filled with garlicky cheese ($10 for 5).
The pastas that follow have more foam on them than an Ibiza dance party.
A terrific filling of hare in the cappelletti was let down by the undercooked pasta — there’s al dente and then there’s chalky chew — and a lovely rustic braise of celeriac and carrots served with had a jarring Christmas pudding vibe thanks to advertised mustard fruits that tasted mainly of
peel ($29).
Spanner crab lasagne — billed as a tribute to Phil Howard from London’s The Square where Scott, executive chef Stuart McVeigh and new head chef Charlie Watson worked together years ago — is a disappointment.
With an overcooked scallop on top, a puck of crab mousse and sea succulents sandwiched between two pasta sheets is forgettable at best ($34).
A curious selection of just three mains are offered: divisive Spanish mackerel, a $90 800g bistecca fiorentina and a too sticky sweet whole quail that wilted radicchio atop couldn’t counter ($34).
For dessert, you’ll find the “oops I made a Vienetta”.
I’d caution that if you are going to invoke both the vision of the world’s best chef (Massimo Bottura famously serves a dessert called “oops I dropped the lemon tart” at Osteria Francescana) and memories of what once was the supermarket’s poshest — and most delicious — dinner party dessert, you’d want to knock it out of the park.
This instead sullies both.
A slab of icy vanilla with all the appeal of no-name ice cream with freezer burn is weirdly teamed with poached quince and popcorn made from millet, the lot topped with a shard of chocolate.
It bears as much relation to a Vienetta as I do a Venetian Doge ($17).
“This could’ve gone either way,” my dinner companion said on the way out.
“I’ve had one of the greatest meals at a Scott Pickett restaurant, but also a couple of terrible ones.
“And you never know which it’s going to be.”
NEW TASTES AT TULUM A TRUE TURKISH DELIGHT
LUME’S NEW DIRECTION A SHINING LIGHT
ELSTERWICK CAFE FINDS THE PERFECT PANCAKE RATIO
Fair cop, I reckon.
Consistency is king — especially at the neighbourhood level — and so while Lupo’s 100-odd bottle wine list from worlds old and new is filled with interest, service is welcoming and the new-look room is nicely lit, the menu wildly misses the mark.
Luckily Scott’s no stranger to change.
Lupo
12/20
300 Smith St, Collingwood
Ph: 9419 2202
Open: Lunch Fri-Sun; dinner nightly
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