Longtime Charlestown Restaurant Tangierino Is Being Reborn as a Tapas Bar

Samad Naamad’s popular Charlestown restaurant Tangierino, which has been dishing out Moroccan food a couple blocks away from the Bunker Hill Monument for more than 15 years, is getting a facelift. It’s also turning into a spot for Spanish tapas. It’s a bit of deja vu: The restaurant also underwent a sizable change around this time last year, adding French cuisine to the mix in conjunction with some renovations. But this time, it’s a complete shift in cuisine, alongside more major renovations and a name change.

Madera 83 Tapas Bar and Kitchen (83 Main St, Charlestown) will replace Tangierino (remaining under the same ownership) and is set to open on October 4 (update: October 12). Executive chef Matthew Leddy — ex-chef de cuisine at Townsman — said it was simply time to “redesign and re-concept.”

“Samad wanted me to put together a menu that stays true to Spanish tapas but that also brings my farm connections into play,” said Leddy. “We’re going to cover the bases as far as what you’d see in Boston, but with a twist. We’re not going to be doing what everyone else is doing.”

Leddy said the bar menu will rely heavily on Spanish wine and that there will be 40 or so different varieties available at any given time. Madera will be open seven days a week, but there will only be dinner service to start.

“We want to get the kitchen running perfectly. Then we’ll eventually start doing brunch and lunch,” said Leddy. “That’ll probably come sometime in mid-November. And the lunch service will consist of a smaller version of the dinner menu.”

Madera is the Spanish word for wood, and Leddy said that the restaurant’s aesthetic will reflect that.

“It’s been a complete aesthetic redesign — there’s a lot of Spanish-style wood panelling throughout.”

If you loved Tangierino for its hookah bar, be not afraid: The downstairs hookah lounge will continue on under the name Tangierino, hookahs and all, but like Madera upstairs, it’ll only serve the new tapas menu, not French or Moroccan food.

Update, 1:30 p.m.: This piece has been updated to clarify plans for the downstairs hookah lounge.

Update, October 12, 2017: Madera 83 Tapas Bar and Kitchen officially opens today.

• Update: Madera 83 Tapas Bar and Kitchen to Replace Tangierino in Charlestown [BRT]