Last Friday morning a few of us from the Press visited the paper’s newest advertiser, the Spruce Street Café in West Acton, and found a winning combination—great food and friendly people. The café is the latest in a series of restaurants in the old building across from the gas station in West Acton’s historic district, and we hope this one is here to stay for a long time.
The first thing to catch our eye upon entering was a prancing pig—one of those latex balloons in the shape of an animal that moves and turns on accordion-like legs. We later learned he was still hanging around after the Tuesday lunch special—pulled pork sandwich. We were able to spot him right away because the entry space has been opened up, giving the whole room a spacious feeling and helping the flow of traffic. The restaurant is licensed for 15 seats.
We were greeted by a very personable young woman named Danielle, who is hostess, waitress, tea-and-coffee brewer, smoothie-maker, and much more. She showed us both the regular menu and the one with specials for the day and helped us with our choices. Three of us ordered coffee, to which we helped ourselves. The coffee is George Howell, a brand made locally that is familiar to us from Harvard’s General Store. Our tea drinker had a choice of eight fresh-brewed flavors of Mem tea and was offered a sniff of the one she chose before committing to it.
We took our seats at a nice, oversized table with very comfortable chairs. While we waited for our breakfast, Howard Cutsom, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Sharon Pecoraro, joined us. We had announced who we were when we arrived, and he had offered to answer our questions. Before sitting down, he brought an apple scone and a blueberry muffin from the bakery case. He told us that white, wheat, brioche, and chiabatta rolls, as well as pastries, are made fresh daily on the premises by pastry chef Elyse Rayner. We cut the scone and muffin into pieces and nibbled delightedly as we talked with Cutsom.
When he answered my where-are-you-from question with “Shenandoah Valley, Virginia,” I asked him, with no attempt to hide my disbelief, why they were moving to New England.
“It’s called an 18-month-old grandson,” laughed Cutsom, and went on to say that the Italian, Sicilian grandmother is not about to let him grow up without his nonna close by. Cutsom explained that his wife had found the building and they had signed the lease in September. They replaced the existing partial kitchen with a full kitchen, but some glitches in that process kept them from opening until right before the holidays. Then, he said, they had a call that Pecoraro’s oldest of five horses, a 30-year-old appaloosa that had been hospitalized with a foot injury, was not thriving. Sharon Pecoraro left at 6:30 in the evening and drove straight through to get home. “My wife is a horse whisperer,” says Cutsom. “She and this horse, My Dove, have a very special relationship. He gets a hot breakfast. I don’t even get that,” he jokes.
Things seem to be going well in Pecoraro’s absence, but clearly she is greatly missed and some things are on hold. The cases at the counter are full of empty, shiny, oblong pans. They are waiting for gelato, Sharon Pecoraro’s specialty. She took courses in Italian and Sicilian gelato-making, explains Cutsom. “This is her restaurant,” he says, noting that all of the recipes on the current menu are hers.
Our food arrived and Cutsom left us to enjoy it. One of us had eggs with pancakes and blueberry sauce and home fries. “This is one of the best pancakes I’ve ever had,” she said. “And I’ve had a lot of pancakes! It’s just so light and fluffy.”
A ham-and-cheese omelet was also accompanied by pancakes, with a side of hot blueberry sauce, and home fries. The verdict: “Really tasty, but soooo much. The home fries are really good.”
“Scrumptious,” said it all for the consumer of one of the day’s specials: apple pie French toast. The special maple-butter syrup that went with it was the pièce de resistance for her.
I enjoyed scrambled eggs and toast and gave further kudos to the home fries, which were bite-sized, perfectly cooked, and very flavorful.
While we were making our way through the meal, chef Steven Brown came out with a tray of samples of the chili and corn chowder from the lunch menu; both are old family recipes from Pecoraro and were delicious. Brown is a very friendly man, who confessed to the irony of not being a breakfast-eater himself. It is clear he loves what he is doing and would have plied us with more samples if we hadn’t already been “crying uncle.” We were happy to be able to tell him how much we enjoyed his cooking.
Cutsom joined us again and talked about the wide-ranging endeavors he and his wife have engaged in, including owning a specialty candy store for 12 years, for which they made all the confections themselves. We were impressed by their experiences and energy.
Cutsom says it’s a good location, and the merchants in the area have been very supportive. He wants the restaurant to be known for great food and good service. The menu will change, he says, but the meals will be consistently good. He wants a true gathering place, with lots of regulars. Down the line, he says, they will do take-out, and the pastry chef may expand into special occasion cakes.
As we were getting up to leave, Danielle came to our table with a small bag. A macaroon cupcake for each of us. Future yum!.
