Tapestry Restaurant Will Close After Three Years in the Fenway

Head to the eclectic neighborhood spot this week for one more slice of awesome Neapolitan-style pizza.

By Jacqueline Cain· 8/19/2019, 2:00 p.m.

Tapestry Expo Kitchen. / Photos provided

Pizza at Tapestry. The eclectic wood-fired spot will close this week after three years in the Fenway. / Photo provided

The Fenway will lose one of its unique, chef-owned restaurants to the dynamics of a rapidly changing neighborhood. Tapestry will close for good this week, as the Kilmarnock Street building housing the two-room restaurant was just sold ahead of proposed redevelopment, Eater Boston reports.

Tapestry is the three-year-old passion project of chef Meghann Ward, who opened it in May 2016 with co-chef Kevin Walsh. (Walsh moved on about a year ago and is now the pastry chef at Little Donkey.) Formerly chef de cuisine at Coppa, the pizzeria and enoteca by Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette, Ward brought house-made pasta to the Fenway, as well as some top-notch Neapolitan-style pizza.

But Tapestry was never just another Italian restaurant. The menu spans the globe, with bar snacks and brunch items like “Greek nachos” with lamb merguez sausage; a scallion pancake breakfast sandwich; pork rillettes-stuffed fried pickles; and crispy-fried potatoes with aji amarillo aioli. The eclectic, well-executed offerings earned it a 2017 Best of Boston award for Best Neighborhood Restaurant.

Before it was Tapestry, the Kilmarnock Street location—about four blocks from Fenway Park—was the rock club Church. Tapestry initially operated two more distinct concepts across two 70-seat dining rooms: a bright and casual pizzeria-and-patio called the Expo Room, and a moody, fireplace-lit lounge called the Club Room. Less than a year in, the Expo Room got a bar-like makeover, complete with a darker look and the addition of billiards, and the same menu became available throughout the restaurant. Tapestry’s Club Room has been closed for the summer 2019 season.

The development slated to end Tapestry’s run proposes two eight-story buildings to replace low-slung structures on Kilmarnock and Queensbury streets, according to Curbed Boston. The project calls for 443 residential units (likely apartments) and parking spots, plus 7,800 square feet of restaurant and/or retail space.

The timing of the sale is somewhat fortuitous: Ward is expecting a baby in October, she shares. Congratulate the chef in person this week and swing through her Fenway restaurant for one more slice: Tapestry will close on Friday, August 23.

69 Kilmarnock St., Boston, 617-421-4470, tapestry.restaurant.

UPDATE, 3:30 p.m.: This story was updated with more information from chef-owner Meghann Ward.