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Aqua/The Black Rhino
One kitchen, two Financial District hangouts for the young afterwork crowd
BY ROBERT NADEAU
Aqua/The Black Rhino
(617) 720-4900/(617) 263-0101
120 Water Street/21B Broad Street, Boston
Open Mon–Wed, 11:30 a.m.–11 p.m., and Thu–Sat, 11:30 a.m.–1 a.m.
AE, Di, MC, Vi
Full bar
Validated parking at 75 State Street garage
Sidewalk-level access to some tables via Broad Street entrance

Here are two bar-restaurants that open into each other’s back rooms, are under common ownership, and share a common menu. I’m not sure why there are two, or why they have the names they do. Aqua is done up somewhat in blue-green and etched glass, but a black rhino is just an endangered African animal. They don’t serve rhino (or very much water, for that matter). Maybe someone noticed that the black rhino, like most African rhinos, is twice as horny as most Asian ones, and thought that was a good joke for a youth-oriented bar.

As you might expect, these are decent lunch places, crowded after work, but too far from Quincy Market to open on Sundays. My favorite visit actually took place mid-afternoon on a ballgame day, when about eight of us had the entire Aqua bar to ourselves, with a fine view of the Red Sox on the flat-screen TV. There are also outdoor tables on the Broad Street (Black Rhino) side that will become increasingly pleasant as the weather warms.

The food is not groundbreaking, but some of it is notably good. My favorite platter is fish and chips ($8.95). This doesn’t seem like a challenge, but very few kitchens can turn out good French fries and good fried fish on the same plate. It seems that the optimal frying temperature for potatoes is higher than that for most breaded fish fillets, so the machines are set one way or the other. Somehow, A/BR turns out a fine cod fillet with crunchy breading, and perfectly good French fries, even a few with the skin on. Their coleslaw is fresh and pretty with some shredded lettuce as well as cabbage and carrots, so it matches the colors of the Irish flag. There are places that nod to the British Isles by wrapping the fish in newspaper or serving malt vinegar with it, but I would rather have both fish and chips nicely fried, and dip them in ketchup or tartar sauce.

Among the appetizers, I liked the "seared mussels" ($7.95; $12.95/entrée), although they certainly aren’t seared. How would you sear mussels in the shell? Promulgated by a Prince Edward Island fishermen’s co-op, this recipe really just cooks the mussels in lots of butter or lobster-infused oil, with garlic and jalapeño peppers for a pretty good bite. The appetizer portion was a nice bowl, all juicy and plump, and needed only some good bread for soaking it up. Fried scallops ($7.95/$12.95) are real sea scallops, though not so sweet and wonderful as some we had recently at Captain Fishbones. The frying, with some crumbs for crispness, was close to the quality of the fish and chips.

BBQ baby-back ribs ($7.95/$12.95) aren’t really barbecued, but they aren’t cooked to death, either, so they are chewy and juicy, with plenty of hot, sweet sauce. The appetizer portion is four, with more of that excellent coleslaw. A mesclun salad ($5.95) combines field greens, the croutons of a caesar salad, and the chunks of feta cheese from a Greek salad. It’s a good choice for people who can’t make up their minds.

Entrées are often like appetizers, with the addition of very good baked basmati rice (probably buttered as well). A special on golden trout ($11) had a nice fried fillet of this Western fish with the rice. Beef stir-fry ($9.95) was a little too salty — all bar food is salty, I suppose — but otherwise some nice vegetables were included with the beef, on rice good enough to justify a faux-Chinese dish.

Mixed drinks are probably the way to go here. We put the wines by the glass through a pretty rough test, because I had buttonholed a prominent wine merchant on my way in to one dinner. I ordered three of the wines by the glass and challenged him to duplicate the menu’s descriptions. This was not a good tasting situation to begin with, because we were outdoors, and because the Black Rhino pours too much wine into too small a wineglass. Then there were a few problems endemic to all such service: the white wines were too cold, and — early in the evening — they had been open too long, losing a bit of crucial fresh aroma. Although I almost always use wines by the glass to check more of the wine list, it’s probably a better strategy for serious wine lovers to order an entire bottle, which can be opened fresh and handled as you dictate.

That said, our expert got all the grape varieties right, and varietal accuracy is a serious test of inexpensive wine. But beyond that, we both found the Ironstone merlot ($6/glass; $24/bottle) almost devoid of character, although as soft a red as many bar drinkers will seek out, unless they have ordered it for the nose of "red and black cherries" with hints of "cocoa and chocolate." The Giesen sauvignon blanc from New Zealand ($6/$24) was merely "citric," maybe "pear," but not "apricot, orange, and lime" with "a slight herbal character on the finish." And our real disappointment, a Westport Rivers chardonnay ($9/$28), had some typical "tart apple" flavors, but not the "lemon, citrus," or "hint of vanilla." The disappointment was that some earlier vintages of this East Coast wine (no years listed on the menu) had the sharp aromas of a decent Pouilly-Fuissé.

In fact, all these wines might have shone better in larger glasses, from newly opened bottles, or in quieter surroundings. This may be a better setting for beer, although my one draught drink, a Magners cider ($4), had a little off-flavor in the aftertaste. Tap water with one dinner was cloudy, and we were unable to order an herbal tea — served as a box of bags with a cup of hot water, the worst possible method — because they were out of herbal tea bags.

These bar-restaurants have desserts, in the decades-old sweets-and-ice-cream tradition of youth bars. A brownie sundae ($4.25) has both those elements, with the nod to the ice cream. Same story on the apple crisp ($4.25), which was pretty good, although the apples were mushy and the "crisp" was soggy oatmeal pudding. However, a fruit cup ($4.25) was triple the usual size and included a good mango sliced in with the usual melons, apples, and grapes.

The atmosphere is really the people, since these places aren’t overly decorated, although they do special-event nights and emphasize important sporting events. The early-evening crowd is young and coming in from work, and my guess would be that similar people join them as the evening proceeds and the DJs increase the pace of activity. Aqua has a cleaner, more modern design, and is an entirely pleasant place to watch baseball. The Black Rhino has steel tables outdoors and a quieter upstairs dining room. For many patrons, the food is just the fuel for the hanging out, and thus the well-made appetizers (well-priced for the area) are a major plus.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com .


Issue Date: April 16 - 22, 2004
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