Chef Wolfgang Ban, whose first Manhattan restaurant earned a Michelin star, has opened a Mediterranean restaurant in the former Tabla space on Tannersville’s Main Street.
Loba opened in September at 6033 Main St. Ban, 49, recently moved to Tannersville from New York City. The restaurant, named for the Spanish word for a female wolf, is open from 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Monday.
The menu will change with the seasons, Ban said, but pasta made fresh each day will be a constant. Options include pappardelle alla bolognese, lumache alla vodka, and bucatini alla Newburg, made with Maine lobster, shrimp, tomato, cognac cream, and tarragon.
“I integrate tarragon water into the pasta to get a green bucatini,” he said.
Red wine-braised short ribs come with tomato-olive barley risotto and gremolata, a mixture of fresh parsley, lemon zest, and garlic. Ban said the dish has become the restaurant’s best-selling entree.
“The barley risotto was a little bit of a sleeper in the beginning but now people are talking about it,” he said.
Nearby farms supply much of the kitchen. Loba buys vegetables from the Hunter Foundation’s Fromer Market Gardens in Tannersville; beef, pork, and chicken from JJF Farm in East Jewett; and chicken and eggs from East Durham Farms.
Ban is also trying to build a following among local diners. Residents within a 50-mile radius can sign up on the restaurant’s website for a “locals pass,” which can be scanned at the restaurant for discounted prices.
He plans to offer weekday “family meals” from 5 to 6:30 p.m., with a menu that changes daily and reduced prices for area residents. Before opening, a sign on the door offered locals a free cocktail.
“I love to do these things because at the end of the day, we are part of the community, and it’s important that we’re all connected,” he said.
Ban grew up in Burgenland, an Austrian region bordering Hungary, and began cooking as an apprentice in his early teens. He moved to the United States in 2000 to become a personal chef to Austria’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York City. Catering work for other diplomats followed.
He wanted to “do something for the public,” he said, and in 2008 opened Seasonal Restaurant & Weinbar, a fine-dining restaurant in Midtown Manhattan.
“It was a difficult time with the financial crisis,” he said. “We almost didn’t make it after a couple of months.”
A three-star review from New York magazine critic Adam Platt in May 2009 helped bring the restaurant wider attention, Ban said. It received a Michelin star that year.
Ban went on to open restaurants in New York City and on Long Island. He was planning another in Tribeca when the pandemic struck. He returned to Austria and opened a New York-inspired pop-up restaurant there.
For his return to the United States, he looked north of the city, to a region he already knew from ski trips.
“I’m very familiar with the Catskills,” he said. “I love skiing. Hunter and Belleayre are my go-to spots.”
Friends had bought homes in Woodstock, and Ban initially searched there for a restaurant space. He then spoke with David Schneider and Patty Wu, the owners of Tabla.
Tabla opened in Tannersville in 2021 and closed earlier this year. Its menu changed several times, moving from Italian dishes to Iberian-style tapas and back to Italian cooking.
Ban said Schneider and Wu were shifting their attention to Lucky Catskills, their Taiwanese street food-inspired cafe on Main Street. That business has expanded to Uptown Kingston and Cold Spring.
At Loba, Ban’s Austrian roots are reflected in the wine list. It includes seven Austrian wines: three grüner veltliners, a sauvignon blanc, a rosé, and two reds.
The cocktail list includes the After Dinner Mint, inspired by British After Eight mints and made with Averna, espresso liqueur, cold brew coffee, and Branca Menta, a mint-infused Italian amaro. The Contratto Highball combines the Italian aperitif with gin, grapefruit soda, salt, and lime.
Ban hopes the bar will give people another reason to visit.
“I want this place to be known for fantastic wine,” he said. “You don’t necessarily need to come for dinner, but come to the bar and enjoy a great glass or bottle of wine.”
Photos by Roy Gumpel/The Overlook.
Connor Greco is a staff reporter for The Overlook covering Windham, Hunter, and surrounding Greene County communities. Send correspondence to connor@theoverlooknews.com.
