D'Acqua Set To Open This Month
D'Acqua, the new restaurant from chefs Francesco Ricchi and Enzo Febbraro, is slated to open by mid-December, possibly as early as next week.
The modern Italian seafood restaurant will fill the void at 801 Pennsylvania Ave. NW left by the sudden closure of Signatures a year ago. On the menu: housemade pork and lamb sausages served with broccoli rabe, Neapolitan style; ravioli filled with seafood and porcini mushrooms in a lemon and marjoram sauce; slow cooked lamb shank "osso buco" style; and grilled cornish hen served with citrus sauce. Ricchi brings Northern Italian influences to the cuisine, while Febbraro adds a Southern Italian flavor.
A display in the restaurant will showcase daily seafood offerings, priced per pound, from which diners can choose their meal. The seafood will be available oven roasted, grilled or salt crusted.
Ricchi opened iRicchi in 1989 and now owns Cesco in Bethesda, which he launched with chef Roberto Donna. Febbraro was previously executive chef at Filomena and Café Milano.
The modern Italian seafood restaurant will fill the void at 801 Pennsylvania Ave. NW left by the sudden closure of Signatures a year ago. On the menu: housemade pork and lamb sausages served with broccoli rabe, Neapolitan style; ravioli filled with seafood and porcini mushrooms in a lemon and marjoram sauce; slow cooked lamb shank "osso buco" style; and grilled cornish hen served with citrus sauce. Ricchi brings Northern Italian influences to the cuisine, while Febbraro adds a Southern Italian flavor.
A display in the restaurant will showcase daily seafood offerings, priced per pound, from which diners can choose their meal. The seafood will be available oven roasted, grilled or salt crusted.
Ricchi opened iRicchi in 1989 and now owns Cesco in Bethesda, which he launched with chef Roberto Donna. Febbraro was previously executive chef at Filomena and Café Milano.
Comments
I will not be returning and wanted to help you avoid the same error in restaurant selection.
Taking the old place of the scandalized Signatures, D'Acqua creates its own scandal (without the help of Jack Abramoff) by serving up stunning incompetency in service and food quality. When one member of our party requested a dish without sauce because of his dietary restrictions, the waiter refused and instead tried to "upsell" a more expensive item. And while the bread was delicious, it was all one member of our dining party had to eat during the first course; she waited for 20 minutes for the dish to arrive after reminding the waiter of her missing salad. Many dishes were served cold when the should have been hot. There were other complaints throughout the meal, such as the lack of olive oil at the table, the meager portions, and the inattentive and sweaty waiter, but the worst insult came when the bill arrived and the 10 oz. bottles of coke cost us $4.00 a piece.
After our negative dining experience, our party had to wonder whether the management of D'Acqua expects to survive in the hyper-competitive restaurant environment of downtown DC. If not, perhaps they might be better equipped to prepare food for their predecessor, Jack Abramoff, at his new residence.