Luppolo

A run-​down bar known for trading in Carling and sticky floors used to sit like an eyesore on an otherwise upmarket Wanstead High Street. So I don’t think anyone in the neighbourhood shed a tear when it closed down in November of last year.
During the time I’ve lived in Wanstead, I’ve seen a few — shall we say — disreputable type of establishments go out of business, only to be replaced by hip shops, bars and restaurants rising from their chavvy ashes (the Duke, Wanstead Fish and the Manor House to name a few). Luppolo is just another of these phoenixes.
As I walked down the high street coming home from the wine shop one Saturday morning in December, I noticed some A4 printouts stuck to the boarded up windows of the old Bar Room Bar. They boasted of a new pizzeria and craft beer bar opening soon.
Huzzah! Finally, a proper pizza joint in Wanstead.
It opened around Christmas time, so it wasn’t until January after all the turkey leftovers were cleared out that I got around to visiting.
My husband and I arrived early in the evening, so there was only one other couple drinking wine at a table, and a sole punter sitting at the bar. We were invited to sit wherever we liked, so we chose a banquette near the open pizza oven.
After perusing the vast menu of craft beers, we chose the house draft, which was flavourful but not too hoppy. On to the enticing if non-​traditional food menu (octopus pizza, anyone?), and my husband and I had a hard time narrowing down the options. My Parma ham, cherry tomato, pine nut and rocket pizza was enjoyable, if a tad on the undercooked side in the middle. My husband ordered some sort of diabolical chilli mess, which I took one bite of and nearly got a case of the hiccups, but which he scoffed happily. Word to the wise, if they say a pizza has chillis on it, they are not joking.
The menu says that the restaurant makes the dough by hand every morning, and that they use the freshest mozzarella and other ingredients possible. This shined through in the pizzas, for sure. They were light, fresh and seemed much more healthful than what you’d get at the Papa Johns down the road.
As we ate, more people started arriving at the restaurant, and the bar stools were all occupied by the time we left. Only one other couple came to eat the pizza like us. So while I personally think that craft beer and pizza are a perfect match, the microcosm of my Tuesday-​night dinner would suggest that these are two distinctive draws to Luppolo — and only occasionally the twain shall meet. Can the space accommodate both a roaring bar trade and a homely pizzeria? I hope so, because i like pizza AND beer.