Is there a better spot for a diner than
across the street from a movie theater? I don’t think so. Not
with the starving hoards of hamburger-drawn teenagers streaming
out of "Charlie’s Angels" and "The Hulk."
Real estate wise, Nando Ghorchian, the owner of three Caffe Buon
Gustos – one in Brooklyn Heights and two in Manhattan – is one
savvy guy. In April, Ghorchian opened Acqua (Italian for "water")
an "Italian diner" with a well-lit sign that vies with
its neighbor’s marquee for attention.
Acqua looks like a traditional suburban diner. It’s big and impersonally
decorated with the generic, shiny wooden booths and bright lighting
unique to diners everywhere. You’d know it was a diner if you
walked in blindfolded – the coffee, bacon and hint of ammonia
aromas are dead giveaways.
The one better-eatery touch, and it’s a lovely one, is the softly
lantern-lit wooden deck that makes an ideal spot for an after-movie
beer and hamburger.
Much of the menu reads like regular diner cooking with eggs and
French toast, very good sandwiches, large greenmarket salads
and hearty soups. The rest of the offerings include more ambitious
cafe-style cuisine that isn’t always successful and seems oddly
misplaced in Acqua’s setting.
Italy is represented by the eggs pomodoro (poached eggs in tomato
sauce with focaccia), several sandwiches that include Italian
meat and cheese all served on excellent house-made focaccia or
Tuscan bread, a couple of Italian-style appetizers, and a few
pasta dishes several rungs above the thick spaghetti and heavy
meatballs often found on diner menus. The brief, international
wine list tops out with a $35 bottle of pinot noir.
If you can stand to be away from air conditioning, take a walk
through the kitchen and sit at one of the outdoor tables. In
the evening, the terrace is quiet and breezy. Order wine or beer.
Break off a piece of that chewy focaccia liberally laced with
fresh rosemary and dip it into the little saucer of high-quality
olive oil. Pair the bread with one or two of the appetizers,
or a starter and one of the fresh salads, and call the meal dinner.
Order a dinner entree and you might be disappointed.
Two appetizers to try are lightly fried calamari, and a layered
vegetable dish, often called a vegetarian "Napoleon"
on other restaurant menus. The tender rings of squid emerged
from the deep fryer with a thin, brittle crust. Garlicky marinara
would overpower the delicate calamari. A ramekin of lightly spiced
tomato sauce, tasting of just-picked tomatoes, made a sprightly
replacement for the marinara.
I’d give the vegetable starter with its juicy, grilled portobello
mushrooms, vibrant vinaigrette and garlicky pesto another try
even though its eggplant tier was slightly undercooked and the
tomatoes were pallid.
Now the bad news. One of the entrees was flavorless; the other
was the oddest, most unappealing dish I’ve tried in a long time.
The first – chicken breast slices pounded into thin paillards
and doused in a lemon and white wine sauce – arrived without
the promised rosemary and mushrooms. An unfortunate omission
because the ingredients would have gone a long way in adding
taste to the dish. You can imagine what the mound of not sweet
and not spicy, miniature sliced sausage, dumped on the center
of the chicken slices, did for the dish’s appearance. A side
of garlic-mashed potatoes was delicious.
Even a side of those mashed potatoes couldn’t rescue the special
salmon entree. When the dish arrived, I wondered why there were
two slices of strawberries that resembled bloodshot eyes perched
on my salmon. After pushing the fruit away, I asked, "Why?"
again when I tasted the sweet, thick, apple-flavored sauce that
ruined the rare fillet and did unmentionable things to an innocent
mound of fresh spinach.
The desserts feature true diner classics like hot fudge sundaes
and banana splits, cheesecake and apple pie. All the pastry is
baked in-house and their flavor rises above the multi-layered
creations on view in diner display cases.
I enjoyed a homey, fresh cherry and apple cobbler. Served warm
with whipped cream, the fruit was pleasantly seasoned with lemon
and a touch of cinnamon and its sweet, crumbly topping added
a pleasant crunch.
A chocolate mousse covered in a hard chocolate shell reminded
me of a giant Malomar (those round marshmallow cookies covered
in chocolate). The dessert was too sugary for me, yet I enjoyed
the truffle-like texture of the creamy center against the firm
coating. A scoop of bitter coffee gelato helped to tame its sweetness.
In Brooklyn, we have enough cafes serving reasonably priced meals
made with care and creativity. What we are losing are real diners
(not Brooklyn-style "finer diners" where a chef interprets
diner fare and serves it with a chic cocktail). A real diner
serves the kind of meals that people want to eat after a movie:
grilled hamburgers and hot roast beef sandwiches with gravy;
pie a la mode; strong coffee. I hope someone opens one soon.
Acqua (111 Court St. at State Street)
accepts Visa and MasterCard. Burgers, sandwiches and pasta: $5.95-$11.95;
Entrees: $11.95 to $14.95. For information, call (718) 858-1277.
