Lulu

The Wyvern’s Restaurant Brings a Fresh Latin Twist to Punta Gorda

Ever since Hurricane Charley leveled our riverfront, I’ve looked forward to its resurrection. I miss the friendly family pride I used to feel at Karl Ehmer’s on the northwest corner of Marion Avenue and U.S. Highway 41, where you could get six excellent grilled lamb chops with all the trimmings for $14. But, like many other downtown landmarks, it’s time has passed

As old landmarks disappear, new ones are bound to spring up. Such is the case with Punta Gorda’s first boutique hotel, The Wyvern. Located on the corner of East Retta Esplanade and U.S. Hwy. 41, this is the first hotel addition to our growing, albeit pleasantly stunted, skyline. And located off the main hotel lobby is Lulu Restaurant.

Named for an owner’s daughter, Lulu consists of an inviting bar area, with polished granite, art deco lighting and comfortable lounge seating, and the dining area, with warm and subdued earth tones, soft lighting and tasteful artwork. As this is a hotel restaurant, breakfast, lunch and dinner are served at Lulu seven days a week, and the tapas and bar menu are available in the bar area for extended hours. The staff is polished and professional, and on the night my wife and I dined there — and during several other visits we have since made — their bright young faces seem to rise up and embrace the expectations of an upscale, boutique venue.

As a side note, if you’re heading to Lulu for lunch or dinner, get there early to go to the rooftop bar, where you get the best view of our beautiful riverfront that is accessible to the public. The rooftop bar serves Lulu’s tapas and bar menus seven days a week.

Lulu offers a “Latin fusion” menu prepared under the expert guidance of Chef Luis Gabriel Velez. It’s one thing to name your cuisine, but it takes true talent to infuse each dish with that extra flair that screams authentic. Spices, herbs and other vital ingredients should be fresh and top quality in a place like this, and every accent, from the olive oil drenching the grilled sardine on the tapas menu to the cilantro and cherry tomatoes garnishing the shrimp tacos, met this standard.

&nbBurgers on the lunch menu feature Spanish blue cheese or manchego cheese, a hard white Spanish cheese, rather than American or Swiss. Either choice gives a mouth-filling accent to prime Angus beef. In other dishes, like the coconut lobster chowder, the Latin spices are pleasantly subdued and harder to identify, but lend a unique flavor not found in recipe books. A creative presentation always adds a special feeling to food in environments like this, and several menu selections are served on green glass arches or vessels…anything but round plates.

The tapas menu features light, single serving appetizers with a definite Latin twist. Mini Cubano sandwiches, olives with manchego cheese, a hard boiled egg, anchovy and roasted red pepper sandwich and a churrasco kabob with chimichurri are some of the choices. All items range in price from $4 to $7. Some evenings, a few of these tasty “small bites” and a big glass of red wine is all I need to make up for working through dinner. Lulu carries a large selection of excellent wines by the glass, most from South America, and they are very reasonably price.

The appetizer menu offers several unique creations. There’s a grilled corn on the cob covered in fresh cheese and served over an arugula and watercress salad. The blue crab salad has fresh crab meat and is finished with a creamy apple vinaigrette. There are mussels, calamari and grilled sausage selections as well.

For appetizers, my wife and I had the shrimp taco and coconut lobster chowder. The taco is actually served in a crisp shell bowl, not rolled, and has crispy fried shrimp in a lime cream sauce mixed with salsa verde. It was quite tasty, and I imagine would be just as good with grilled shrimp for those preferring lighter fare. The tomatoes, onions and cilantro together with the lime cream sauce gave it a great tropical feel. The lobster chowder was creamy with the subtle, unique flavors I mentioned earlier. It had a nice portion of lobster among small cubed potatoes and was just enough to warm us up on a cold night without being too filling.

Lulu offers an array of entrees, including several steaks, three seafood dishes, a crispy pork confit in guava BBQ sauce and a roasted chicken. All entrees are served with interesting accents.

We enjoyed the 20-ounce T-Bone with valderon blue cheese and watercress salad — definitely enough for two! We also had the grilled Atlantic salmon with grilled asparagus and garlic cream sauce, which was nicely crisped on the outside but moist overall. My wife and I have been back on several occasions and have never been disappointed.

Spices, herbs and other vital ingredients should be fresh and top quality in a place like this, and every accent, from the olive oil drenching the grilled sardine..to the cilantro and cherry tomatoes garnishing the shrimp tacos, met this standard.

For dessert, a sweet bomb by the name of tres leches was placed before us. Tres leches means three milks; they take a sponge cakelike muffin and soak it in regular, evaporated and sweetened condensed milk, and a little rum for good measure, and produce an extremely light, extremely sweet and irresistible dessert. Don’t miss it. The coconut flan was dense with coconut overtones and a lingering finish unlike the syrupy finish of typical flans. It was lighter and came with less guilt than the tres leches. Five other choices on the dessert menu sounded equally sinful.

Judging from the steady flow of patrons each time I dine at Lulu, people are noticing Punta Gorda’s newest hotel venue. The Wyvern, and it’s flagship restaurant, is just what this county needs, another fine dining option and, most importantly, a quality choice for our out-of-town business associates and family members when they come visit.

The Wyvern is located at 101 East Retta Esplanade in Punta Gorda. Lulu is open seven days a week. Breakfast is served from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., and lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dinner service begins at 5 p.m., and the last seating is at 9:30 p.m. The rooftop bar serves the tapas and bar menu from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Call (941) 637-5858 for information.

HARBOR STYLE would like to thank Robert Loceto, Chef Luis Gabriel Velez and their staff for providing our reviewer with such an enjoyable dining experience.