Tap & Tapas opens in Northport

Most of the places serving tapas on Long Island have no particular affiliation with Spain, the country that came up with them, using “tapas” interchangeably with “small plates.”

But Tap & Tapas in Northport is Spanish through and through, from the lineup of wine-friendly bar snacks to the whole leg of Iberico ham that stands proudly on the bar to the deep wine list that ranges far beyond Rioja and Albarino into the precincts of Listan Negra and Treixadura. (The taps are represented by a half-dozen beers from local brewers such as Barrier and Sand City.)

Nibble on Marcona almonds or marinated olives while you peruse the menu, then move on to platters of great Spanish cheeses (Manchego, Idiazábal, Valdeón) with quince paste or a charcuterie board starring ham and chorizo. There are lamb meatballs, dates stuffed with blue cheese, pan con tomate (toasted bread rubbed with tomato), grilled octopus, purple asparagus with Manchego, patatas bravas (potatoes tossed with aioli and paprika) as well as salads and larger-format chops. Almost nothing on the menu is more than $16.

Ramon Martinez took over what had been Nina’s Pizzeria in March and launched an abbreviated takeout menu until June, when he finally got his liquor license and opened the cozy dining room and bar and the brick-paved patio out front.

In the months since he’s been in business, Martinez has dealt with a certain amount of confusion surrounding Spanish cuisine on Long Island. First, there are the people who are confused by the tapas bar’s lack of Mexican food — even though the two cuisines have very little in common.

Then there are the people who come in expecting huge pots of arroz con pollo and paella Valenciana, nominally Spanish dishes but whose gargantuan proportions derive not from the Iberian peninsula but from the old-school Spanish restaurants of Manhattan such as El Quijote on 23rd Street.

But Martinez had his Spanish consciousness raised during the years he worked with chef and restaurateur Seamus Mullen, first at Tertullia and then at El Colmado, two Manhattan restaurants that were in the vanguard of a movement to honor the authentic foodways of Spain. “The old-style restaurants,” he said, “people expected to get three pounds of food, eat some of it and then take the rest home. When I was working with Seamus, I saw how fresh and refined Spanish food could be.”

Tap & Tapas, 487 Main St., Northport, 631-239-2488, tapandtapas.net. Open Sunday-Thursday 3 to 9:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 3 to 10 p.m.