The casual Spanish tapas restaurant from Bold Bite co-owners and brothers Alonso and Alvaro Roche is now set for a September opening in Bethesda, according to a press release.
Alonso Roche first revealed his plans for the former BlackFinn space on Fairmont Avenue in November. Then tentatively called De Tapas, the restaurant’s name will actually be Tapa Bar. Roche was shooting for a July opening, but with the buildout inside still going the opening has been pushed back to September.
The concept—a menu offering Spanish tapas dishes, gin and tonics and sangria—hasn’t changed.
Crews working on the restaurant recently broke through to the Bold Bite space next door. Tapa Bar will share a kitchen with the popular breakfast and lunch spot, which the Roche brothers opened in 2011.
Last month, they hosted experimental tasting dinners for Tapa Bar in the Bold Bite space.
The new restaurant will feature items including small Spanish sandwiches known as montaditos, pork porterhouse, a tomato salad with truffled sherry vinaigrette, smoked octopus with a cauliflower piquillo puree and farm-fresh eggs tossed with Spanish sausage and crispy fries, according to the press release.
There will also be sangria and “a robust menu of gin and infused homemade tonics.”
“Our goal is to allow customers to have a full meal and one or two glasses of wine, while keeping the tab below $50,” Alonso Roche said in the press release.
The bar inside the space will made from reclaimed barn wood and the walls will be adorned with giant photos of Spain taken by the Roche brothers’ sister, who lives in Madrid.
Alonso Roche is a graduate of L’Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda and opened Bold Bite locations in Bethesda and Union Station after working at Bethesda’s Persimmon and a number of other area restaurants.
European Wax Center, a chain of hair removal spas, will be moving into the next-door space that also used to be home to BlackFinn. After BlackFinn closed in 2014, the building owner split the space into two separate storefronts.
