{"id":9482,"date":"2023-11-14T14:56:30","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T06:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/?p=9482"},"modified":"2023-11-13T17:29:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T09:29:17","slug":"restaurant-wine-review-aciugheta-in-venice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/p\/9482.html","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant & Wine Review: Aciugheta in Venice"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Aciugheta<\/strong><\/p>\n

Campo Santi Filippo e Giacomo, 4359<\/p>\n

30122 Venice, Italy<\/p>\n

Tel.\u00a0+39 041 522 4292<\/p>\n

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The dishes<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Polpetta tradizionale di manzo e maiale<\/em> \/ Traditional beef and pork meatball<\/p>\n

Crostino con Baccal\u00e0 mantecato<\/em> \/ Bread and pur\u00e9e of dried salt cod<\/p>\n

Sarde in \u201csaor\u201d (10 pezzi)<\/em> \/ Sardines “in saor” marinated with onions, pine nuts, raisins, vinegar (10 pieces)<\/p>\n

Pizzetta con acciuga<\/em>\/ Little pizza with anchovies<\/p>\n

Peperonata<\/em> \/ Pan-fried pepper stew, onions & tomatoes<\/p>\n

Impepata di cozze<\/em> \/ Mussel stew<\/p>\n

Affogato al Whisky<\/em> \/ Ice cream in Whisky<\/p>\n

Affogato al caff\u00e8<\/em> \/ Ice cream in coffee<\/p>\n

The wines<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Corte Sant\u2019Alda 2021 Molinara Agathe Veneto\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 90<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Situated in a small but busy and pretty campo<\/em> a few minutes walk from piazza San Marco, Aciugheta has long been one of the city\u2019s most famous bacari<\/em> (the local name for a wine bar and bistro). Founded in the early 1900s, the place got by selling ombre de vin<\/em> (glasses of wine) but quickly became famous for its bread and anchovy snacks and other cicheti <\/em>(Venetian tapas, to generalize). When in the 1970s owner Gianni Bonaccorsi (originally from another beautiful Italian city, Ferrara) brought Aciugheta back to its previous splendour, the tradition of the bread with anchovy snacks continued, but morphed into a more modern version of small pizza with the delicious salt fish (pizzetta con acciughe<\/em>). And though ti may seem strange at first, given you\u2019re sitting in Venice and not Naples or Rome, pizza is actually a serious affair at Aciugheta, where they take pride in using 100% Italian stone-ground wheat that hails from eco-sustainable agriculture (in fact, most of the ingredients used at Aciugheta are organically farmed and labeled as \u201cbio\u201d). The goal with pizza is always to make it as easy to digest as possible and they certainly succeed in their intent at Aciugheta.<\/p>\n

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Independently of how good the pizza is, my advice for anyone lunching\/dining at Aciugheta is to to stick with the pizzetta con acciughe<\/em> so as to give a nod to the place\u2019s storied past but to focus on the local Venetian specialties such as sarde in saor<\/em> and the baccal\u00e0 mantecato<\/em> (creamed salt dried cod), all of which are excellently rendered. During my last foray at l\u2019Aciugheta I had a very solid meal: maybe not quite as good as some other meals I had there four-five years ago, but you can do much worse in Venice, a city for which the term \u201ctourist-trap\u201d was probably coined (but in fact, truly knowledgeable epicures and foodie insiders know that it is one of Italy\u2019s three or four best eating cities, provided you know where to go). On this particular day, the best dish was, by far, the peperonata<\/em>, with the sarde in saor<\/em>, the baccal\u00e0<\/em> and the mussel stew all holding their own, but without really standing out; though I would have liked more depth and precision in the flavours, nothing was less than good and the dishes were all more or less flavorful. The quality of the ingredients and the potentially fine cooking here are no surprises, given that Aciugheta is under the same ownership as Il Ridotto, one of Venice\u2019s ten best restaurants (opened in 2006, it\u2019s a real must-go to dining spot for worldly sybarites but you need to reserve ahead as the number of tables is small (less than 10 or so): beware that Il Ridotto lost its Michelin star in 2021, but you shouldn\u2019t care, because the decision is frankly hard to comprehend, especially given some of the city\u2019s newly-starred places that should be anything but) and the Hotel Tiepolo, a simple but very well curated hotel in the city I also recommend heartily. Even better, Aciugheta has an excellent wine list, much above the average of most (but certainly not all) venetian bacari<\/em>, and it\u2019s made that much more interesting because you can ask to choose wines from the fantastic list of the Il Ridotto nearby (I suggest choosing one of the many delicious local wines, but if you must, it\u2019s the sort of dining destination that will have for example, from time to time, Y’quem by the glass). Service at l\u2019Aciugheta is friendly and attentive but not especially fast, but in the end you won\u2019t mind, as the outdoor seating area right in the campo<\/em> is a joy and you won\u2019t mind passing time there (we liked it so much we actually went to the tabaccaio<\/em> across the square and bought cigars to spend even more time at our table out in the open).<\/p>\n

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The day was one of fun an d relaxation, and so I limited myself to one, very good, wine. The Corte Sant\u2019Alda 2021 Molinara Agathe Veneto <\/strong>is a brilliant example of what the underrated Molinara grape variety can deliver. Luminous red colour (unfortunately almost caricatural in its bringing fluorescence to mind), this is a lovely wine boasting aromas and flavours of red berries, field flowers and aromatic herbs. Fresh and juicy, its lingers nicely on the palate, with harmonious acidity working especially with anything you\u2019ll be eating that is either fried or heavy on the fat content. The creamy-long finish repeats floral nuances.\u00a0 Molinara is a large-berried grape that gives very light-bodied, pink-coloured wines that are at once delicately fruity, spicy and salty, it was once a big component of Bardolino and Valpolicella wines (Amarone included) but has been mostly phased out over the last two decades by producers looking to score points with those who like to drink jam. To be crystal-clear about this, producers who have, maybe, gained some customers who like to talk about wine more than they actually do drinking it, all the while losing forever those like me who like to lunch and dine with well-balanced wines that are food-friendly. And you know something? We are not a small group. Mercifully, the same large group of wine- and food-lovers who flock to l\u2019Aciugheta, and will continue to do so, given the simple but good food and excellent wines served. Well done.<\/p>\n

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by Ian D’Agata<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-restaurant-and-wine","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9482"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9492,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482\/revisions\/9492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terroirsense.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}