In a nutshell, Acorn Eatery gets cracking
Rounding the curve where Holman Road meets 15th Avenue, sharp-eyed passersby may have already noticed that Acorn Eatery & Bar now occupies the space once known as Ridge Pub & Grill. It's more than just a name change. New owner Conrad Topacio has revamped the place inside and out, installing a slate floor and an antique bar top, refinishing the birch and pine wainscoting and applying soft lavender to the walls above it. He's even added a generous deck, where he has wisely put a TV tuned to Mariners games.
|
A trained chef and more recently a restaurant broker better known for facilitating the opening of other people's restaurants, Topacio has finally launched a place of his own that he hopes will be the first in a chain of "nutty" neighborhood eateries. (Could a Hazelnut Cafe be in the works?) The pizza- and pasta-heavy format is familiar — and the chef as well. Dino D'Aquila, who made his name cooking downtown at Il Bistro, then Belltown Billiards, was most recently behind the stove at another Italian-accented neighborhood restaurant, Fremont's Seattle Catch.
At Acorn, D'Aquila is smoking duck, chicken and salmon as well as re-creating the cracker-crusted pizzas he did so well at Belltown Billiards. So far Il Bistro's legendary red-wine-marinated rack of lamb isn't on the menu, but Acorn does offer a pan-seared New York steak finished with merlot and green peppercorns. At $18.25, it's the priciest entree. Pastas and pizzas range from $9.50 for cheese ravioli or a plain 10-inch pie, to $14.50 for seafood linguine.
The lunch lineup is similar and slightly lower-priced. The limited happy-hour menu, available 4-6 p.m. and 10 p.m.-midnight, knocks down prices even further. Leading the weekend brunch choices is a breakfast pizza for two ($10.50) topped with sausage and four eggs.
Though nothing on the uninspired wine list merits a splurge, keeping the tab under $50 for two can still be hard when you order appetizers like clams or mussels in a white-wine broth ($9.25). Better to save your dollars for desserts like the sweetly tart lemon bars or nutty Acorn tart. The tart isn't made with acorns, thankfully, but rather hazelnuts on a light flaky crust, served with a scoop of Jack Daniels ice cream that has so much booze it should be in rehab.
Check please
Mussels Saltate: Garlic, tomato and shallots in a buttery white-wine broth don't quite mask the mussels' slightly fishy taste. The shellfish broth made an excellent substitute for the dipping oil that accompanied bread to every other table but ours.
Linguine Salmonetti: A generous amount of salmon is usually a good thing, but the heavy smoked flavor of the fish overwhelms the fennel and dill that are visible, but impossible to taste, in the satiny cream sauce.
Stuffed Pork Loin: A tantalizing sherry cream sauce moistens two boneless chops, stuffed with a lively blend of sun-dried tomato, pine nuts, mozzarella and artichoke. On the side are nicely roasted new potatoes, steamed zucchini and seriously underdone carrots.
Itemized bill, meal for two
Mussels Saltate: $9.25
Linguine Salmonetti: $12.25
Stuffed Pork Loin: $13.50
Two glasses of Chianti: $9.00
Subtotal: $44.00
Tax (9.3%): $4.09
Total: $48.09
Providence Cicero can be reached at providencecicero@aol.com.