Tangier Catering will take over the space were Bricco West formerly was at the Holiday Inn Express in Fairlawn, where it will run a small restaurant and cocktail bar in the front plus an event space with three banquet rooms in the back.
“Nobody knows there’s a bunch of banquet rooms behind it (the restaurant),” Tangier Catering owner Angelica George said April 15.
She’ll call her new venture in Fairlawn, Tangier West.
Angelica George, who runs three other wedding banquet venues in the Akron area, said she hadn’t been looking for another space when Rennick Andreoli, president of RDA Hotel Management Company and co-owner of the Holiday Inn Express with Steve Comunale, invited her to expand to their property.
“He needs people and we have a good client base,” Angelica George said of Andreoli. “It’ll fuel the hotel. We’re doing over 100 weddings a year.”
Andreoli said April 20 that the new partnership is a perfect fit.
“We’re very happy to have them as part of the complex and as a tenant in the Holiday Inn Express,” the hotel proprietor, who also owns the DoubleTree by Hilton next door, said April 20. “I’m sure they’ll bring a lot of excitement to our complex.”
“The reason I thought it was a good fit is because they have expertise both on the banquet side and on the a la carte side. It’s hard to find somebody who has both skill sets,” Andreoli said. “It’s great to have Tangier back on West Market Street.”
Bricco West, which owner Dave Sharp closed in February, originally opened as Cafe Bricco in 2010 under the ownership of David Glenny, when the hotel was a DoubleTree.
Now branded the Holiday Inn Express, the property has a large ballroom that seats 200 and features an expansive patio. Another banquet room with a fireplace seats 40 and a third space can seat 30 for small events. Angelica George, who signed the lease April 15, already has a wedding booked for October in the ballroom.
“It was underutilized,” Andreoli said of the Holiday Inn Express’s banquet facilities. “Angelica’s a real go-getter and she’s built a great reputation.”
The former Bricco restaurant and bar area will be fully remodeled, with design by Hazel Tree Interiors. That will include replacing the flooring. The restaurant will have a separate name from Tangier West that will be announced later.
Banquet rooms can be booked by June and the restaurant and bar will open in early August. Tangier will hire a new chef and and craft cocktail bartender for Tangier West as well as additional catering staff for its newest venue.
The restaurant will have craft cocktails and a New York-style steakhouse.
“We’re going to bring back some of the old Tangier favorites. So we’ll serve sauerkraut balls. We’ll serve a great steak, great pieces of fish, kind of what we did back in the ’80s” at the old Tangier, Angelica George said.
The space will be “loungey,” said Angelica George, a cocktail-oriented spot with a speakeasy or old New York kind of vibe.
Plans for restaurant design
Karen Starr of Hazel Tree Interiors described the restaurant renovation as “high design, old school New York, dark and moody, warm and inviting, comfortable sophistication.”
“We will weave in soft lighting, velvets and woods. A color palette of black and dark, smoky teal and deep, rich burgundy, golds and bronzes,” Starr said.
The fireplace banquet room, which also will double as a continuation of the restaurant space, with have a similar vibe with a bit lighter color palette. Entertainment also will be offered there.
“This room, I’m really excited about because this is where we’ll hold the huge collection of the vintage photographs from the Tangier that were down that main holiday back in the day,” Starr said of the hundreds of celebrity photos at Tangier restaurant’s longtime, landmark location on West Market Street.
She refers to the space as the fireplace lounge, where guests can relax in an “old-school 1950s meets current-day vibe.”
George’s father, Edward, who ran Tangier on West Market for many decades, will help Angelica with the new restaurant.
“It’s kind of great that the name Tangier is gonna continue to exist. I give her a lot of credit; she’s got a lot more guts than I had,” he said April 17. “You gotta be sharp; you gotta be there. If she does all that, I think the name Tangier is gonna bring a certain amount of people out to that place. And the location’s great.”
Angelica George is a third-generation Tangier owner, whose restaurant her grandfather, the late Edward A. George, originally founded in 1954 at 663 E. Exchange St. Tangier left its iconic Akron restaurant location at the end of 2021 after more than 60 years at 532 W. Market St., now home to House Three Thirty.
The business started catering operations at Our Lady of the Cedars in Fairlawn about four months before Tangier ceased operations at its West Market Street home in Akron.
Phase 2 plans
Tangier Catering plans to do a striking renovation of the large ballroom in the later, Phase 2 of the project.
“Think classic black and white with gold accents. So dramatic and dark for this kind of high-style contemporary meets striking elegance,” Starr said.
Tangier Catering also runs banquet venues at Our Lady of the Cedars in Fairlawn, the Trailhead at Cascade Lofts in Akron and the upscale The Bank at the East End in Akron, also designed by Starr and opened in late August. The highest price point is at The Bank and Angelica George plans to price Tangier West banquets a bit lower than that.
The business also manages private catering events at the 450-seat Greek Community Center at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Akron.
Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Tangier West to open new restaurant, banquet rooms in former Bricco spot
Reporting by Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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