La Quercia Warms Up Room and Refreshes Menu After Nearly Ten Years on West Fourth Avenue

Karin Lazzaris and Adam Pegg have reopened La Quercia after a brief closure for a room and menu refresh. You’ll still find this Italian spot cozy and classic, but now with a more extensive offering of fresh pastas and risottos, along with classic starters and mains.

Over the years the team has found diners have become more educated, and many restaurants have switched to family-style dining service, a choice that was once rather unique. As a result, La Quercia is now offer family-style to tables of seven or more, and suggests that larger tables might care to sit in their adjacent wine bar, L’ufficio.

Printed menus are now circulated, listing a larger selection of primi (pasta, risotto and gnocchi). The menu is inspired by the Italian Chefs that Pegg worked with in Italy, where premium quality ingredients are most important. There are many options for vegetarians, and a few different mains offered depending on the season and availability of produce, meat and seafood.

La Quercia continues to source as locally and organically as possible and works with suppliers to bring the best of the season to the table. Chef Pegg’s sister, Lauren Pegg, farms the lamb that La Quercia frequently serves and the ducks comes from the Fraser Valley’s Lowstock Farm. Summer is the only time fresh tomatoes appear on the menu when Stony Paradise can supply them uber-fresh and Hannah Brook Farm supplies fresh vegetable year-round. Pegg relies on Mikuni Wild Harvest to bring in foraged truffles and mushrooms, the restaurants own garden supplies a good deal of the seasonal vegetables, and honey comes from the on-site hives.