Paella Mixta at Estragon Tapas Bar

When Julio de Haro opened Estragon Tapas Bar (700 Harrison Avenue, Boston, 617.266.0443) in 2008, he hired a young chef whose take on Spanish small-plates cuisine leaned a bit creative. It was very good, but many of Estragon's early customers had come expecting the more traditional Spanish fare that de Haro had cooked in his previous life at another area Spanish restaurant. A year later, de Haro assumed the chef's reins, shifting the menu to a more classical style of Spanish cuisine and leaving partner Lara Gavigan to run the front of the house. Old fans rejoiced, and new fans started streaming to this quiet corner of the South End.

That success is hardly surprising in light of de Haro's beautiful tapas, starting with pintxos (savory snacks on toasted bread) like anchoas ($6.50), anchovies, hard-cooked eggs, and tomatoes, and pringá ($7), a confit of beef shank, pork belly, Spanish chorizo, and bone marrow. Vegetable dishes include the classic tortilla Española ($5.50), a generous wedge of potato/egg omelet, and puerros con Romesco ($8), young leeks sautéed to melting tenderness and accented with a sauce of peppers, garlic, olive oil, and ground almonds. Seafood gets its due in almejas a la sidra ($12), local littlenecks cooked in cider and garnished with Serrano ham and caramelized onion, and pulpito a la parilla ($9.50), grill-charred baby octopi - adorable, but too tender and tasty not to quickly polish off. You won't find nachos in a Spanish restaurant, but huevos rotos con txistorra ($9) come close: slightly oily pan-fried potatoes are topped with two fried eggs and chunks of kicky, bright-red Basque sausage.

The real head-turner, the dish that every adjoining table wants to order when yours arrives, is paella mixta ($29). The essential Spanish casserole of al dente bomba rice is infused with fragrant saffron, loaded with scallops, squid, mussels, shrimp, and chicken, given a bit of color with parsley and peppers, and served in its own cooking pan. De Haro's rendition is a showstopper, encompassing the virtues of the Valencian larder in one gorgeous, rich, generous dish. Add a cocktail program that gets fantastic mileage out of a beer/wine/cordial license, Gavigan's far-ranging, all-Spanish list of wines and sherries, and a room that recalls an upscale taberna from 1930s Madrid, and you have a fabulous setting for date night or a big meal with friends who like to share. Julio still pops out of the kitchen to chat up his guests, but we're grateful he put the chef's whites back on. His sure hand in the kitchen has kept Estragon humming while flashier neighborhood competitors have already come and gone.