Tiffani Faison’s Tiger Mama Will Close at the End of October

Chef and restaurateur Tiffani Faison is closing her nearly six-year-old Fenway restaurant Tiger Mama this week to make room for a new restaurant that she’ll open in its place in 2022, her restaurant group Big Heart Hospitality announced today.

Faison opened Tiger Mama, a love letter to Southeast Asian cuisines bedecked in major tropical vibes, in late 2015, just down the street from her first restaurant, barbecue joint Sweet Cheeks. (Since then, she added two more venues to the same street, intimate standing-room-only bar Fool’s Errand and Italian restaurant Orfano. The former is currently open for private event rentals and special events, while the latter has been on hiatus but is expected to reopen in November 2021.)

Faison has had another restaurant in mind for a while now, and she realized that Tiger Mama’s space would be the right fit for it. “It’ll be bittersweet to say goodbye to Tiger Mama, and I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish,” she said, via Big Heart’s announcement. “It goes without saying, Tiger Mama will always have a special place in my heart.”

The restaurant’s last day for regular service will be October 29 — fans of Tiger Mama’s mala mushrooms, lamb dan noodles, and pork shank adobo should quickly schedule a farewell visit — but there will be a last hurrah on October 31 with a Halloween drag brunch starting at noon; tickets are available here.

Faison isn’t sharing details on what exactly will replace Tiger Mama yet, but it won’t be her only new project in 2022. She has three new businesses on the way at the forthcoming downtown Boston food hall High Street Place as well; that’s slated to open in March 2022. There, she’ll open Bubble Bath, a Champagne and wine bar with a Champagne vending machine and fancy hot dogs; Tenderoni’s, a ’70s and ’80s throwback pizza-and-grinder shop; and Dive Bar, a seafood spot where New Orleans meets coastal New England.