Lula in Sewickley offers intimate surroundings, simple food
Ann and Robin Fernandez had moved to Sewickley with their children about a year before they walked by the closed Naked Grape restaurant space, heard it was for sale and “thought it was an adorable place,” as Robin says.
The small, 49-seat wine bar and restaurant, in an angled flatiron building on Broad Street, had been finished with wheat-colored tile and wood floors with windows on both sides.
The Fernandezes and three partners bought the restaurant, did a complete cosmetic overhaul using Mediterranean-inspired furnishings, and opened Lula Nov. 1. Lula, a tapas and wine bar, began offering lunch service in February.
“We attempted to create a place where we could offer common foods, simply done, but with high quality … and great, fresh ingredients,” Robin Fernandez says.
Fernandez says his goal at Lula is to create a “social environment” where groups of friends and family can stay, sometimes for hours, enjoying good wines, beer, drinks and food. Fernandez chooses all the wines, primarily California wines by the glass, along with premium bottles from around the world.
The lunch menu is simple, with four salads and three sandwiches, each at $10, and a daily soup that is either $4.95 or $5.95. Salads include Lula Chopped Salad, also available with chicken. Sandwiches include a Lula Burger with crimini mushrooms, jarlsberg cheese and truffle dijonaise, and Lula Crab Tostada with purple cabbage, tomato and chipotle sour cream on a crispy corn tortilla.
Dinner plates cost from $6.95 for a cheese plate to $19.95 for a Seafood Cocktail featuring lobster tail, crab meat and large shrimp with a trio of sauces.
“We change the menu as often as we can,” Fernandez says. “I shop three or four days in the Strip and buy everything fresh. Our scallops are the best I've ever eaten,” sauteed in kitchen manager and chef Rory Alcala's lobster butter.
“You'd think you were eating fabulous lobster,” Fernandez says of the scallops, which cost $13.95.
Other small dinner plates include Patagonian Lamb Chops for $15.95 and Sweet and Savory Roasted Duck with a ginger orange glaze, for $15.95.
“Everything we do is pretty straightforward,” says Alcala, 35, an Ohio native now living in Shaler. “I don't like to put too many things in to drown out the flavor.” So most dishes comprise just five or six ingredients, which Alcala says suits Lula's customers.
“We have a good bit of women here,” he says. “I don't want them to have to fuss with the food a lot.”
Alcala started his relationship with cooking under the tutelage of two women: his grandmothers, whom he says were “great cooks and wonderful women.” He finished off his training with studies at the former Pennsylvania Culinary Institute here. Now he do-si-dos with sous chef Dave Hickman, 23, of Sewickley, as they prepare meals in the tiny, angled Lula kitchen.
Fernandez says one Lula trademark is roasting in the oven to finish lamb chops, filet mignon and scallops, “so you don't have that charcoal taste,” he says.
Fernandez also has the hospitality gene. His grandmother, Consuela Fernandez, ran The Spanish Grill for years in Donora, where Fernandez was born. After high school in Burgettstown, he studied hotel-and-restaurant management at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He's been in the hospitality business since his first job just 11 days out of college, making a career of operating large city nightclubs such as Metropol, Rosebud and Confetti. He still operates the 200-seat Bossa Nova nightclub, Downtown.
Now 58, he has made something of a switch with the small and intimate Lula. His wife, Ann, helps out with Lula's lunch service and likes the new community in which she lives and works.
“It's so nice,” she says. “If you want to walk to work, you can walk to work … It seems simpler … It's safe for the kids, and the people are very friendly.”
“People have enjoyed what we've done,” Robin Fernandez says of Lula. “It gave people an alternative. It's been a hit because it's an alternative. I think there's something to be said for simplicity nowadays.”
Patagonian Lamb Chops
Rory Alcala, 35, of Shaler, kitchen manager and chef at Lula in Sewickley, favors good food simply seasoned so the flavor of the ingredients comes through. Patagonian Lamb Chops, named for the southern region of South America, is served with fire-roasted chimichurri, a South American condiment, and is one of Lula's most-popular menu offerings.
Finishing the chops in an oven keeps them tender. Fire-roasted jalapenos in the chimmichurri give lots of kick to the dish while still allowing the mellow flavor of the lamb to shine through.
“People out here like zesty food,” Alcala says. However, he says the vinegar and lemon juice counteract the heat, as does a good glass of accompanying red wine.
Alcala also shares the recipe for another popular Lula item, Lobster Melts. Made with lobster, Gruyere cheese, tarragon and three condiments, these melts are small, eminently flavorful variations on the classic grilled-cheese sandwich. Alcala makes his own lobster butter in which to grill the sandwiches; home chefs can use regular butter.
2 double-cut lamb chops
Salt and pepper, to taste
Chimichurri (see recipe)
Manchego cheese
Fresh oregano
For the chimichurri:
1⁄2 cup (about 12) jalapeno peppers, seeded and roasted
1⁄2 cup fresh oregano
1⁄2 cup fresh parsley
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1⁄8 cup lemon juice
1⁄8 cup red wine vinegar
To prepare the chops: Season the lamb chops with salt and pepper; place them in a hot skillet to sear (see photo 1). Place in a 450-degree oven on one side and cook for about 10 minutes, turning halfway through the oven process.
Remove from the oven; slice each chop in half to produce two chops, and let them rest for 5 minutes (photo 2).
To prepare the chimichurri: Pulse the peppers, oregano and parsley in a food processor; do not overpulse, or the ingredients will become mushy. Combine the pulsed ingredients in a mixing bowl with the remaining ingredients (photo 3).
Place the chops on a serving plate; top them with the chimichurri (photo 4) and garnish with grated manchego cheese and fresh oregano.
Makes 1 or 2 servings.
Lobster Melts
Soft hoagie rolls, cut in vertical slices
For each small sandwich:
1 tablespoon Gruyere cheese, grated
1 tablespoon lobster salad (see recipe)
Butter, for grilling
Chesapeake sauce (see recipe)
Lobster salad
2 pounds cooked lobster, chopped
1⁄2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon tarragon
1 1⁄2 to 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1⁄2 tablespoon horseradish
Chesapeake sauce
1⁄4 cup mayonnaise
3⁄4 cup Dijon mustard
1⁄4 cup horseradish
To prepare the lobster salad: Combine the ingredients.
To prepare the Chesapeake sauce: Combine the ingredients and puree; refrigerator until using.
To prepare the sanwiches: Place the cheese and lobster salad on one small hoagie slice; top the lobster-cheese mixture with a second bread slice. Place the small sandwiches on a hot buttered grill and grill each side until golden. Serve with a pool of Chesapeake sauce for dipping.
Sandra Fischione Donovan is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.
