Wolfgang Ban is on the prowl. Somewhere in the dining room of Loba, his new Mediterranean restaurant on Main Street in Tannersville, someone might need another glass of wine. Or another plate. Or simply a hello from the man whose name is, more or less, on the door. Loba means “she-wolf” in Spanish, and Ban has embraced the theme, down to the sheepskins draped over seats. The wolf, apparently, has already eaten. Now he wants to make sure you do.
Ban works the room with the enthusiasm of someone who has invited everyone over for dinner and intends to take personal responsibility for their evening. His is an expansive, old-school hospitality, attentive and gregarious, with a ready interest in whether you’re enjoying yourself and what might improve the situation. Those who appreciate the full embrace of a restaurateur will find much to enjoy here. Ban clearly considers feeding people only part of the job. “Most of the time, I can’t remember what I ate a few days after a restaurant visit,” he says, “but I will always remember how I felt in a place even years after.”
That’s a considerable statement from a chef whose résumé includes a Michelin star. At Loba, which opened in the third week of September in the former Tabla space, the food gives diners plenty to remember, too. But Ban’s presence helps explain what holds together a menu that travels from Levantine spreads to Italian pastas to an Austrian-adjacent breaded pork cutlet. The organizing principle is a good time at the table.
The room has been enlisted in that effort. Nancy Geaney of NDG Design Studio and creative director and interior designer Kimberly Wesson, both veterans of the fashion world, had three weeks to refresh the space without demolition. They introduced a new color palette throughout, stripped the floors’ dark finish to expose the natural wood, added a bespoke bathroom vanity, and reworked the bar with custom elements. Their Alpine-meets-Catskills approach connects Ban’s Austrian roots with his adopted mountain setting. Along with those sheepskins, the changes give the restaurant the warmth of a place prepared for people to settle in.
Ban has been working toward a Catskills restaurant for several years. Hiking trips with his Weimaraner and skiing excursions first brought him to the region; after the pandemic, friends who bought houses in Woodstock gave him further reasons to visit. He began looking for restaurant spaces around Woodstock in 2021, then worked on consulting projects in the Catskills before a lead brought him to Tannersville. He liked the property and the possibilities of the Hunter Mountain area enough to commit.
His route there began with hospitality studies in Vienna and an offer to become the Austrian UN ambassador’s private chef in New York in the early 2000s. Other diplomatic clients followed, along with a catering business and an in-house restaurant for the German government. In 2008, he and fellow Austrian chef Eduard Frauneder opened Seäsonal Restaurant & Weinbar in Midtown Manhattan, with timing that could charitably be called challenging: Lehman Brothers collapsed as they were preparing to welcome diners.
“My investors back then were very worried that all the investment would be gone in a few weeks,” Ban recalls. Favorable reviews and a Michelin star in the restaurant’s first year changed its fortunes. The partners followed with Edi & the Wolf, an East Village Austrian tavern, and The Third Man cocktail bar. Ban later worked with Paulaner on its sprawling Bowery microbrewery and restaurant, an operation whose communal table alone could accommodate 50 people.
Loba draws on that experience while giving Ban room to pursue his current interests. Classically French trained, he has spent recent years cooking more Mediterranean food, making pasta, and thinking about nutrition. He wants vegetables to occupy more of the plate and plans to develop additional vegetable entrees as the restaurant finds its footing. Seasonality will guide further changes.
For now, the menu makes a persuasive case for assembling dinner in stages, beginning with something to spread on warm flatbread. The assortment I tried included smoky baba ganoush ($14), hummus ($13), muhammara ($15), and a Levantine Marcona almond spread ($16). All were worthy starters, offering ample reason to keep passing plates around. The baba ganoush combines fire-roasted eggplant, garlic, and pomegranate; the muhammara brings walnuts, pomegranate molasses, and cumin; the almond spread gets its seasoning from za’atar and lime. A platter offers a choice of three mezze for $24.
The köfte meatballs ($18), made with beef and lamb and served with harissa tomato sauce and whipped labneh, accomplish a useful appetizer trick: They’re umami-dense and satisfying while remaining light enough to leave dinner’s possibilities open. This becomes a practical consideration when you’ve ordered about half the menu.
Restraint is harder to associate with the stuffed focaccia ($14). “Stuffed” takes some interpretive license here—the mozzarella, tomato, and basil read as layers—but the result is decadent enough to discourage a prolonged discussion of bread taxonomy.
Among the pastas, the bucatini alla Newburg ($36) was a standout. Maine lobster and shrimp meet tomato, cognac cream, and tarragon in a dish that approaches richness with a steady hand. It’s creamy enough to deliver the pleasure promised by “Newburg,” without tipping into the over-creamed territory where seafood becomes an expensive excuse to eat sauce. Other options include pappardelle alla Bolognese ($26), lumache alla vodka ($25), and garganelli with oxtail stew and confit tomatoes ($28).
The braised short rib ($40), delightfully tender, arrives with tomato-olive barley risotto and gremolata. It has already emerged as an early favorite with diners, Ban says. The menu also includes chicken cacciatore ($34), made with chicken sourced from La Belle Farm in Ferndale, and pork Milanese ($37), pounded, breaded, and pan-fried, with arugula, lemon, and Parmigiano. Ban’s Austrian background has an available point of entry even on a Mediterranean menu.
The wine list is small and extremely well chosen, with Austrian bottles giving it a personal stamp. Berger Grüner Veltliner ($15 a glass) and Glatzer Blaufrankisch ($14) sit alongside selections from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, and California. Bottle offerings include Nikolaihof Grüner Veltliner ($82), Raúl Pérez’s Ultreia St. Jacques ($63), and ARPEPE’s Stella Retica ($114). It’s a list with enough range to reward curiosity, compact enough to navigate before the meatballs disappear.
For Ban, the impulse behind all this predates his cooking career. As a young man helping organize music events in Austria, he discovered the satisfaction of putting in the work and seeing happy people at the end of it. Restaurants offered another way to pursue that feeling. At Loba, you can see him checking on the results, table by table, glass by glass, making his rounds.
Loba, located at 6033 Main Street in Tannersville, is open for dinner Thurday to Monday, 5pm-10pm.
