Acqua Santa--Brooklyn

718.384.9695

One word: Garden. The interior of this place is like a mom and pop pizza restaurant. It’s hot, kind of gross, and certainly not hospitable enough for a long three-course meal. Outside though, it’s a different story. The two-tiered garden is a perfect place to spend a nice summer afternoon. In fact, until recently, this restaurant was a summer venue only, that is until the red-car inclined owner bucked up enough dough to enclose it for year round dining.

Let me just give you a quick anecdote of what a good garden can do for you. August 14th, 2003. I took the day off from work because we were heading out of town, and since I had a few hours to kill decided to head to Acqua Santa for some bruschetta and Peroni’s. I was reading Death in the Afternoon, and like most Hemmingway books, reading it made me feel as though putting down eight beers before dinner was perfectly acceptable. Nonetheless, around eight or so my girlfriend called. She was walking over the Williamsburg Bridge and was wondering if I was okay. Of course I was, I said trying to hide my slur, I was sitting beneath grape vines eating a fresh tomato bruschetta and drinking beer. What more could a fellow ask for? It turns out that the entire city had blacked out and I had no idea, only because I was outside of space and time and everything else that reminds you that you’re in a city. That’s what a nice quiet restaurant garden can do.

On this one the food and service can take a back seat. And for the record, unless you head several blocks east or north you’re not going to find a standard Italian dinner like one that is offered at Acqua Santa (There’s a new one, relatively speaking, that’s cropped up on South Bedford but more on that later). The food is good enough, they have pizza’s, pasta’s, caprese salad, etc… Italian food. And for a backyard like Acqua Santa’s that’s all you need.