Tapestry Weaves Its Way into the Fenway Scene Next Week

The Club Room at Tapestry. / Photo via Facebook

A power couple of chefs—Oringer protégés and Radius alumni Meghann Ward and Kevin Walsh—are set to debut Tapestry mid-next week in Fenway. The restaurant’s OpenTable account has dinner reservations available beginning June 1.

Named for the eclectic cooking styles it will showcase, Tapestry takes over the former restaurant and music venue Church. The new establishment is also dual concept. On the former restaurant side, there’s the Expo Room, a casual, wood-fired pizza and oyster bar with a new, open kitchen, and the Club Room is a more formal dining area with mid-century Havana lounge vibes. Spotify playlists on Tapestry’s website help hone in on each room’s atmospherics.

Ward’s stepmother, Marlena Ward, rounds out the ownership group behind Tapestry. Ward and Walsh met 10 years ago at Radius, and they were most recently chef de cuisine at Coppa, and pastry chef at Clio, respectively. In January, they got married.

The ownership trio are fans of The Godfather, and the film inspired the decorating choices in the Club Room, Ward previously told Boston. There are plush, winged, leather and velvet barstools, plus a tropical wallpaper and a gold tinned ceiling. The intimate, 70-seat room also has a four-sided glass fireplace. The fare is designed to be shared first courses, entrées, and desserts.

Some of Ward’s favorites on the opening menu are a fluke and jicama ceviche with burnt habanero oil and buttermilk, inspired by the couple’s trips to Mexico; hand-made pastas, like green and white ramp farfalle with mushrooms, sorrel, and miso butter; green curry escargot; a burger with a molten, caramelized onion jam; and a sea buckthorn and white chocolate parfait with lemon verbena.

“We’ll have a chicken dish, and a pork chop dish. It’ll be very approachable and show a lot of creativity. There will be something for everyone,” Ward says.

The bar will echo the Club Room’s throwback island feeling with a tiki program. Ward said she buffed up her bartending skills with a few shifts at Clio before it shuttered late last year. The team has also brought on bartender Genna Barone, an alum of the Gallows and Franklin Café and recent Ms Speed Rack New England, and Will Isaza, formerly of Fairsted Kitchen.

In the Expo Room, which also seats 70, a wood-fired oven drives the menu, with a focus on Neapolitan-style pizza. There will be four to start, including a springtime riff on pepper and onion, with ramp and shishito; and a pie topped with clams, sunchokes, and black garlic. There are a selection of oysters, and ever-changing snacks. The opening menu offers chicken liver mousse, a baby wedge salad with crispy duck tongue, and dessert bites, including classic cannelle with espresso creme for dipping, and burnt orange pâte de fruit.

In a few weeks, the Expo Room will offer weekend brunch, too. There’s also have a three-season patio, seating 35. Tapestry has a 2 a.m. alcohol license, and will serve dinner nightly.

“It’s simple cuisine, but fresh and lively in the front,” Ward said. “The back is the canvas for us to get a little more creative with what we cook. We’re trying to pull from a lot of different professional experiences, and he and I have been lucky to travel extensively. Every culture and ethnicity will be represented in our food. It’ll be funky, ever-changing, seasonally-driven cuisine.”

Tapestry, opening in May at 69 Kilmarnock St., Boston, 617-421-4470, tapestry.restaurant.