Echoqua: Bold Italian Flavors on Route 22

While , and may be the usual fare for this space, we're open to all Springfield has to offer during the workday, from to . This week, we opted for the latter – a plate of orecchiette and sausage from , the Italian restaurant in Echo Plaza, where Mountain Avenue meets Route 22.

The dining room here is long and usually quiet at lunchtime, filled only with the sounds of Italian American music (think Frank Sinatra or Sinatra's songs covered by Michael Buble) and the conversation of a few tables of people in business attire. The walls are adorned with paintings of Venetian canals and Mediterranean villas. The tables are covered in white tablecloths, each with a cruet of extra virgin olive oil. A small bar greets you at the entrance way, but don't ask for a martini to start your meal. Echoqua is BYOB; thankfully for some; is just a few doors down.

The regular lunch menu includes antipasti, soups, salads, pizza, pasta, burgers, sandwiches and wraps, as well as chicken and fish entrees. On my visit this week, I focused exclusively on the lunch specials, which tempted me with everything from chicken balsamico with sun dried tomatoes to veal Sorrentino in a sherry wine sauce with eggplant, prosciutto di parma and fontina cheese. In the end, I settled on the first item on the menu – orecchiette with sausage, peas, sun dried tomatoes and fontina cheese.

The table across from me started their meal with the calamari fritti, which they appeared to enjoy. Confined to an hour for lunch, I skipped a first course and instead enjoyed a few slices from the bread basket. The bread was not warm, but it was fresh – a soft white inside with a chewy, rustic crust, with my choice of soft, foil-wrapped butter pats or some bold, fruity olive oil from the cruet.

The orecchiette arrived hot, topped with slices of Italian sausage, strips of sun-dried tomatoes, tossed with a generous amount of green peas, held together with a light garlic and oil sauce and sprinkled with fresh chopped parsley.

The macaroni was cooked perfectly al dente; the sausage dry, but full of flavor. The peas clung to the orecchiette beautifully. From the sausage to the sun-dried tomatoes and tiny bits of pungent garlic, this dish was full of bold flavors – flavors that I enjoyed but that had me self-consciously chewing gum back at the office later.

No wine for me on this trip, as I had to be back to work. But the unsweetened iced tea was served in a stemmed glass with a lemon wedge and refilled once. By the time I finished the plate, it was time to pay my bill and be on my way.

This wasn't our first trip to Echoqua. (but might make a reappearance in the fall?): fresh fettuccine with white wine, tomatoes, spinach and Gorgonzola, and pollo bianco, a boneless chicken breast in a white wine sauce with tomatoes, salami, arugula and mozzarella. Like this week's orecchiette, both dishes last year were full of strong flavors, including the garlic cloves (in every case cooked, but not browned or burnt).

If you have a full lunch hour or, preferably, a little more, Echoqua offers a good satisfying lunch, for only a few bucks more than most of the township's sandwiches (my bill, before tip, came to $12 and change). Just be sure to have some gum on hand if you plan to be near people later.