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Before venturing into the restaurant business, Henry Moynahan Rich co-founded Oral Fixation mints, a brand known as much for its sleek retro packaging as for its breath-freshening properties. There is a similar emphasis on style at Rucola, the Boerum Hill brownstone-cum-Piedmontese farmhouse. The wine list is primarily Northern Italian, the cocktails laced with amari and bitters, and the room itself clad with reclaimed Pennsylvania barn wood and rustic farm implements. To stand out from the meat-centric competition, chef Joe Pasqualetto (late of Gilt) has devised a vegetable-focused menu of salads and housemade pastas, many incorporating locally grown produce. Daytime café service offers morning espresso and pastries, as well as sandwiches like slow-roasted pork on house-baked bread. Dinner features seasonal selections such as whole roasted brook trout, acorn squash and raddichio, and rigatoni bolognese. Mint, anyone? — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld