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This venue is closed.

Chef Tony Acinapura—the guy depicted in the television show The Restaurant as slaving over the red sauce while Rocco DiSpirito worked the room—has opened an Italian-American place of his own. Aquaterra (roughly, "surf and turf" in Italian) traffics in such retro-traditional fare as lemon chicken and rigatoni with Sunday gravy, with a few newfangled twists on the formula. The house salad, for instance, combines grilled pizza with prosciutto, escarole, Gorgonzola dolce, and walnuts. Bruschetti topped with oil-cured tuna or roasted squash populate the bar menu; panini with fillings like sweet soppressata, hot peppers, and provolone are served at lunch; and Nutella, toasted hazelnuts, and a shot of espresso soup up an ice-cream sundae. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld