Building Romein Highburywill take morethan a day

Lupa: the she-wolf that suckled Rome's founding twins, Romulus and Remus, nourishing them after their abandonment.

- DAVID ELLIS

A drawing of her prowls across the menu here, presumably to indicate that this is a Roman-style restaurant, rather than to suggest that the founders are big on Mussolini (the dictator once posted Lupa statues to several US cities). “Roman comfort food” is the offer, the owners playing to the strengths of talented head chef Naz Hassan, raised in Italy. Hassan made his name at Pidgin, but cooked too at Bibi and Clipstone; as training wheels go, these are monster truck-sized.

It is the owners who have swivelled the most eyes to this Highbury dining room. One is Ed Templeton, co-founder of Carousel, where Hassan has previously guested. The other is Theo James, the irrepressibly handsome White Lotus star. His inclusion in the photos announcing the place stirred the internet’s interest. Would he be there, seductively sipping a spritz, mulling over an after-party at his place nearby? We can but dream.