Fort Lauderdale has a new Italian dinner room on the water. Barchetta, a coastal Italian chophouse, opened on October 1 at 1880 SE 17th St., on the waterfront plaza beside the Omni Fort Lauderdale hotel and the Broward County Convention Center. It serves dinner Tuesday through Sunday, overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway.

A name with two meanings

Barchetta means "little boat" in Italian, the small open boats that run along the Italian coast. The same word was later borrowed for the light, open-top sports cars that became shorthand for Italian design. The restaurant plays on both. The room is done in warm reds, wood, stone and leather, with clean modern lines and bright Italian-inspired artwork, and the whole thing faces the Intracoastal.

What to order

Executive Chef David Caceres runs a menu built on three things: pasta made by hand, premium seafood and prime steak. Three dishes lead the list. The Bistecca Fiorentina is a prime T-bone meant for two people to share. The Frutti di Mare is a mixed seafood plate built around Florida black grouper and finished with Kaluga caviar. And the Bucatini Cacio e Pepe takes the Roman pasta classic and adds black truffle.

The kitchen pairs imported Italian ingredients with South Florida touches across the menu, so expect local fish to share the table with the steak.

Caceres has described the cooking he wanted here as food built on great ingredients and bold flavors, with dishes that have real character. Read the three signatures again and that is the shape of the menu: one big shared steak, one seafood dish that shows off a Florida fish, one pasta that takes a simple classic and makes it rich. It is a menu designed for a table of four that wants to pass plates around.

Cocktails with a local twist

The bar treats Italian aperitivo culture with a sense of humor. The Pomodoro Negroni is a riff on the classic built with tomato and basil washed gin, Campari and sweet vermouth. The Day Drift mixes Prosecco, lemon juice and St-Germain with J.F. Haden's Lychee Liqueur from Tropical Distillery in Miami, the craft spirits company owned by Florida natives and former NFL players Mike and Maurkice Pouncey. Their liqueurs turn up in cocktails across the hotel. Spritzes, Italian wines and the classics round out the list.

Part of a bigger waterfront

Barchetta is the newest addition to the Omni Fort Lauderdale, the Broward County-owned convention hotel that opened last December beside the convention center. The hotel already runs Reef 76 Kitchen + Bar, Fair Ketch, Ibis Sky Lounge, Hidden Key, Tide Coastal Kitchen and Leeward Market, and the hotel says Barchetta brings about 52 new jobs.

The hotel's general manager, Gayla Guyse, has said the goal since opening day has been for the Omni to become part of the fabric of the community, not just a place for convention visitors. For residents, the point is simpler: a corner of the city most people only visited for a trade show now has a reason to drive over on a Saturday night. The plaza sits right on the Intracoastal, which makes it one of the few places on the 17th Street side of town where dinner comes with a view of the water.

Hours and how to book

Barchetta is open six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday, and closed Mondays. Dinner runs from 5 to 11 p.m., with the room staying open until midnight on Friday and Saturday. The kitchen takes its last orders at 10 p.m. every night, so plan a late dinner accordingly.

Reservations are on OpenTable, and the restaurant posts updates on Instagram at @BarchettaFLL. For a first visit, book a table with a water view, split the Fiorentina between two, add the cacio e pepe for the table and start with the Pomodoro Negroni. It is the drink people will be asking about.