The Lupo Verde Experience
In planning my now 2nd blog, I ponder … how can I make a dining experience & review relevant to talking about our brand, and what we’re about?
SO HERE WE GO AGAIN …
Designing the District Launch
How to pair business, pleasure, fun, & food together toward an enriching outcome.
On Friday, August 2nd, 2019, Designing the District celebrated the successful launch of our new brand and website. This was a big deal for us, considering that I have been kicking the whole “take care of your clients before taking care of your own brand,” approach to running my business. Furthermore, I could not think of any better way to thank my hard working team of social media experts, influencers, creators, and emotional support than taking them out to a fancy dinner to show my gratitude. Seriously, without the love and contribution of Erin, Jenn, Johan & Stewart, I would not be where I am today. I hope you come to find that I strongly believe in teamwork and supporting everyone’s talents, interests, and creativity. So let’s swiftly flash forward to this past Friday night’s Designing the District team dinner at Lupo Verde-Osteria.
So how’d I end up at Lupo Verde-Osteria and what do I know about restaurants?
Funny thing about how we ended up at Lupo Verde-Osteria and what, how, and why am I talking about dining in the district; there’s a little bit of a story! Let me first preface that I am in no way a food critic. I am, however, quite the foodie. As a designer and relatively “fancy” individual, I truly value a well curated, well planned and well engineered holistic experience. I have always had a palette for high quality food and beverage and truly value all forms of creative execution: food, drinks, sound, smells, service, design, IT ALL CONTRIBUTES TO A MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCE.
Many of you may not know that I learned how to cook from living in France and Italy. It was there I also developed a strong familiarity and understanding of wine; how it plays, pairs, and enhances the dining experience. Beyond having food engrained in me at a very young age, I’ve been blessed to have lived all over the country and world, always emphasizing the importance of the well-planned dining experience, and have thus integrated my passion for this into my everyday lifestyle and business.
Outside of my global experience, I have professionally been working in hospitality marketing and event planning for almost two decades. I have recently designed, staffed, styled, programmed, launched, opened, and marketed a few high-end restaurant-bars myself. Needless to say, you have some context for why and how restaurants and dining are important and relevant to me.
My history with Lupo Verde, as a brand, is pretty standard: cute authentic Italian restaurant, located blocks down my street (14th Street NW - Washington’s cultural center for lifestyle shops, cafés, bars, restaurants, galleries, gyms, apartments, etc.), wonderful food, great service, perfect date spot, yada yada yada.
A few months back, Wylie and I were on our morning walk down the street for a little coffee. For those of you who do not know who Wylie is, he’s my adorable rescue pup aka my son (you can find him on my personal IG account @TimurDC). We were cruising past 14th & T streets when, out of the complete blue, I literally collided with a dear old friend of mine, Angelo Di Napoli. We initiated the standard old-friend stop and chat. I learned that since our early-career in nightlife days: Angelo and I both worked and frequented nightlife venues … In my early 20’s, I was considered a DC socialite. I played the stereotypical role of the BIG GAY PERSONALITY, rollin’ into the clurb with my gaggle of gays, gals, gents, and sometimes ghouls! Angelo was the kind bar manager that would always permit my DJ booth and table service shenanigans. It has been well over a decade since we became friends and those club days are long gone. However, like Ilana Glazer states in Broad City, “In Da Club, We All Fam!” And this is absolutely true for those of us who have found friends, fam, and purpose through our loves of music, dressing up, dancing, partying, etc.
During our stop and chat, I came to learn that Angelo had recently spent 5 years departed from DC to live in Florida and explore restaurant management, restauranteuring, and basically becoming a bad-ass Maître D … so dope! Ironically, we were outside of Lupo Verde DC and he explained to me that he is managing Lupo Verde-Osteria in the MacArthur District of the Palisades, DC (a charming urban village within the city, located directly west of DC’s famous historic neighborhood of Georgetown). In ver non-typical influencer fashion, I admitted, “huh, where is this, what’s going on, why haven’t I heard of this!?” Whoops, blew my “man in the know” cover. However, in pure influencer fashion, upon learning Lupo Verde has a few other locations, I immediately pitched that I come in for an authentic experience to feature, review, and cover this “new” location via my channels. To be honest, I absolutely LOVE supporting all of my friends passions and am ecstatic to bring my talents to their table (pun intended). I am also a diehard business man, and will always find ways to do business with friends and others. Angelo was totally on-board with this, we agreed to DM about it, and away we went.
Over the past couple months, we DM’ed a bit and tried to find the perfect time and opportunity, in both of our schedules, to make this happen. But hey, it’s summer, I’m a busy b*tch, it basically takes a village to manage my nutty schedule … but also, I need the right time, reason, opportunity, and the stars aligned to craft a meaningful, authentic first experience for not only myself, but my guests, and, of course, YOU ALL!
Presenting the lovely Lupo Verde-Osteria…
As you will learn about me, I oftentimes find ways to make all of my decisions multi-purposed. Remember when I was explaining that we just launched the new Designing the District brand and website? How I really wanted to treat my team to fancy, delicious dining experience, and how I ran into my old friend Angelo who invited me to check out his new spot and I proposed doing a review and feature in exchange for the meal (in restaurant, hospitality, and lifestyle marketing, this type of exchange of services is standard — not to be confused with an #Ad). Additionally, you will learn, if you don’t already know, I tend to take the philosophy of GO BIG OR GO HOME. So when we got close to realizing the launch of my updated brand, I reached out to Angelo to propose that I bring my entire team (composed of lifestyle influencers, food photographers, creators, and designers) to execute a collective first Lupo Verde-Osteria experience, in exchange for content produced, shared, and reviewed on each of our relevant channels: IG posts, FB, Twitter, Stories, Highlights, Blog (where you find yourselves today). This served as one very important stone in tackling multiple birds (remember this, I will bring it back to the birds and the stones).
SO LET’S TALK ABOUT THE FOOD!
Firstly, the detail man in me was completely blown away by how charming, well-designed, perfectly curated, politely staffed, acoustically flawless, and fragrantly splendid my initial impression of Lupo Verde-Osteria was, as you can see in the video above. Secondly, having designed and opened a restaurant bar myself, build effective brands, audiences, and speak to hundreds of multi-industry consumers on the daily, these little tiny details paid to all 5 senses is very important. Combine that with a cohesive and consistent staff culture and reliable product, and you have yourself a #winner!
So far, so good, I was into this vibe. The neighborhood felt more alive being around Lupo Verde-Osteria, there was a casual chic essence I gathered from my fellow diners, in observing their style and perceiving who Lupo’s consumer is. Remember, I am always a business man and always thinking of marketing metrics and consumer data (I know, snooze 😴 … but I love 🥰).
Moving on to our first interaction with the staff, and wow what a staff! We were warmly welcomed, the table had my name upon a reserved sign (ALSO LOVE!), and Angelo was there with open arms to welcome us each with a hug. That’s pretty special, I must say. Additionally, we were greeted with a fantastic charcuterie board to kick off our digestive juices and to acclimate us to how Lupo treats its guest. Seriously, full blown red carpet treatment! Our team of servers was friendly, helpful, patient, and fun. They walked us through the entire menu and made the ideal wine recommendations for each of the numerous dishes we wanted, and eventually ordered. We ended up ordering pretty a variety of greens, pastas, meats, and sweets. Honestly, y’all, from start to finish, my face was the drool emoji 🤤 <— this one! Our plates were designed with thought and science, both in presentation and flavor profiling. The chefs came out to present themselves and certain special dishes (high five Lupo Verde, I do this a lot, and sometimes the restaurant staff won’t even know I/we are coming for a media feature).
In comes the (sometimes obnoxious) flashes and cameras (WARNING #FOODPORN)
It should go without saying, that we all had a fantastic dinner experience at Lupo Verde-Osteria. The 20-minute ride share from my place (Designing the District HQ) to the Palisades was well worth it. We pretty much closed the restaurant down. Johan group texted, when they received my calendar request for this dinner, “Gurl, you know this 8pm - 10pm dinner block is going to cruise well past 3 hours!” Johan was correct, honestly, if you take this facet of what you do seriously: content production, digital story telling, writing, putting together a story arch and content plan for an audience, and executing all of this, then you will absolutely take your time to nail it! I do this because I love this, I love creativity, and I love sharing my interests and the things that make my life better, with each and every one of you. I strongly believe in always striving to be better, give it you all, get shit done (well), and get chic done (even better). These mottos are foundational elements of how we work at Designing the District. And guys, that hard works pays off!
What’s next for Designing the District & Lupo Verde?
Remember when I asked you to remember my “multiple birds, one stone” analogy? Well now it’s time that I bring y’all, whoever is still with me, full circle.
As an entrepreneur, perpetual businessman, and lover of doing what makes me and those around me happy, I of course contemplate all untapped and optimized potential in any collaboration, especially those where I could truly enrich positive outcomes and help others do better by getting shit done. Upon completing our group dinner, we reviewed some of our initial content captured at the dinner with Angelo and his team. They were truly impressed with our perspective and creative interpretation of how Lupo Verde-Osteria should present. So much so, we began discussing other, more significant ways we could help (music to a brand marketing agency’s ears). Having executed due-diligence on the brand prior to our engagement (honestly, y’all, it’s important to know what you’re talking about and with whom you’re working in advance of a collaboration influencers, take note). I versed myself in the tone, history, voice, menu, and aesthetic of the Lupo brands before my visit. I basically came prepared to talk shop at the dinner, and I’m glad we did! Angelo & team were impressed with our content, our rapid turn around story production, and our general vibe. This has now evolved to a scheduled meeting with the leadership to discuss bringing Designing the District in to take over creative brand direction for their 5 locations, and truly bring our special gifts to better express on broader platforms, how genuinely fantastic the Lupo Verde brands are. If I were to sum up my experience(s) in one word, that word would be QUALITY. Your neighborhood Italian restaurant (Lupo’s motto) truly delivers.
What’d I tell ya about numerous birds with one stone!
Well, I am on my way to sit down with the Lupo team … I seriously cannot wait, I am budding with creative ideas for this brand, I am hungry for (gasp!) carbs, and am so stoked to meet the owner of this fabulous DC establishment. I like to keep it fully real when sharing my real life experiences, opinions, and story with you all and I hope this real-time account of my first Lupo Verde-Osteria visit and how certain elements of my business work, are both interesting and entertaining.
If you find yourself in Washington, DC, I highly recommend hitting up a Lupo restaurant. You will not be disappointed.