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While breakups suck, they can also be potent catalysts for change: they help you re-evaluate what's important, and boy, would David Spade be thinking twice if he saw your new rack! Using a split to fuel culinary transformation, Verdad.

Just shy of a year after the highly publicized falling out with his one-time business partner and chef at Carmine's Creole Cafe, and the ugly legal battle that ensued, serial restaurateur Howard Taylor's teamed up with CIA alum Nick Farina to open a Euro-Latin tapas restaurant & tequila bar, recasting the former Carmine's space as a seductively dimmed 85-seater with soft drapery and wrought iron dividers separating front and rear dining rooms from the central bar area and its smattering of banquettes covered in leopard print, which makes sense, because have you seen their cursive? A selection of "Nibbles", including Malpec oysters and a charcuterie platter, and five ceviches like shrimp & poblano in 10 Cane rum play lead-in to Latin-leaning tapas like Berkshire pork and chorizo Cuban sandwiches, soft-shell tilapia tacos, spiced Kobe beef & manchego in a hard shell, and beef short rib quesadillas, along with European of-the-sea dishes like honey lavender-glazed scallops and corn chip-crusted crab cake, as well as meatier Euro options like bacon-wrapped filet, braised pork belly, and Maple Leaf Duck breast, because Canada might as well be in Europe. If you like your plates not-small, there's fuller portions like pork tenderloin w/ machuquillo (plantain mash); a 12oz strip steak w/ roasted fingerlings; paella packed w/ lobster, oyster, shrimp, & mussels; and lobster w/ Serrano ham, pearl onions, & clarified butter, in case you were hazy on the concept the first time around.

For booze, six taps rotate local brews (Weyerbacher, Dogfish Head) and imports (Dos Equis, Guinness) to complement a Latin-heavy bottles selection (Presidente, Pacifico, Red Pig...), while the cocktail list's topped with mojitos and rojo & blanco sangrias. The tequila concept's fully realized with flight selections and a stock that includes Don Julio, Milagro, Casa Noble, and El Tesoro Paradiso, which is exactly where Spade would be if he saw you in that halter top.

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Study the menu here so you can impress friends and strangers alike with your extensive tapas expertise