Shuttered North End restaurant to be reborn as Italian seafood place

The Boston Licensing Board today approved restaurateur Frank DePasquale's plans to turn the shuttered Ida's on a small courtyard off Hanover Street into a seafood restaurant featuring the cuisine and feel of the Amalfi Coast.

Key to the new Acqua's ambiance will be a patio - with almost twice as many seats as the restaurant itself - that will be open almost every day of the year and which DePasquale and attorney William Ferullo vowed would be turned into "a garden" that will make customers feel like they're sitting on the Amalfi Coast, rather than right atop the entrance to the Sumner Tunnel.

In addition to fish, Acqua will also serve wines and cordials as well as breakfast.

Ida's, one of the North End's oldest restaurants, closed last fall.