Name: Leña Neighbourhood: Financial District Contact: 176 Yonge St., 416-507-3378, lenarestaurante.com, @LenaRestaurante Owners: O&B Chef: Corporate executive chef Anthony Walsh and executive chef Julie Marteleira (Jump, Luma, Auberge du Pommier)
The food
For breakfast, there’s a takeaway spread of sweet pastries, but guests can dine-in with a menu that includes breakfast empanadas with poached eggs and chimichurri, or a slice of tortilla. Lunch brings Argentine sandwiches. Things get a bit heartier for dinner with dishes such as rabbit with snails and rice. On the weekend: brunch.
Some of the items from the takeaway breakfast counter.
Walsh, putting the finishing touches on Lala’s Tortilla.
Rabbit and snail rice: escargots, green pepper tomato sauce, white wine, artichokes. $34.
The alfajores—shortbread cookies, goat’s milk dulce de leche and coconut—are made using a recipe from Walsh’s wife. $3.
The drinks
Wines from Argentina, Chile and Spain; local craft brews on tap; and a selection of Latin-inspired cocktails, like the Leña, a South American take on an old fashioned.
The Caipiroska (back), made with blueberry vodka, demerara sugar and blueberry lemon shrub ($13), and Leña (front), a South American take on an old fashioned, made with charred cedar, bourbon, vermouth, sour and a scorched cherry. $16.
The space
Taking up a chunk of Saks, Leña has an all-day bar off of Queen West, a second-floor dining room and a lower-level lounge. The third level—yes, there’s a third level—is where the private dining areas live.
Breakfast is served at the takeaway counter in the main bar.
Here’s the main bar again. Some of the heritage building’s features were preserved.
Here’s the second-level dining room.
And again.
A semi-private dining space sits opposite the second-floor dining room.
Bar Lala, on the lower level, is a 70-seat lounge.
The food
For breakfast, there's a takeaway spread of sweet pastries, but guests can dine-in with a menu that includes breakfast empanadas with poached eggs and chimichurri, or a slice of tortilla. Lunch brings Argentine sandwiches. Things get a bit heartier for dinner with dishes such as rabbit with snails and rice. On the weekend: brunch.
[caption id="attachment_398516" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Some of the items from the takeaway breakfast counter.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398512" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Walsh, putting the finishing touches on Lala's Tortilla.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398537" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Lala’s Tortilla: Yukon Gold potatoes, egg, Spanish onion. $6.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398525" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Susana's gaucho empanadas: beef, boiled egg, olives, "chiminasty" sauce (a blend of chimichurri and Walsh’s "nasty" hot sauce). $13.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398550" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Salt cod salad with crunchy cumin chickpeas, olives, pimentón, olive oil, and egg. $16.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398535" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Charred beef tartare is cooked on charcoal, mixed with green olives, fennel, oyster mayonnaise and finished with ash. $18.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398519" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Pollo Doña Aurora: organic chicken, laurel, mushrooms, potato purée, lemon, saffron. $27.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398532" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Rabbit and snail rice: escargots, green pepper tomato sauce, white wine, artichokes. $34.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398511" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] The alfajores—shortbread cookies, goat’s milk dulce de leche and coconut—are made using a recipe from Walsh's wife. $3.[/caption]
The drinks
Wines from Argentina, Chile and Spain; local craft brews on tap; and a selection of Latin-inspired cocktails, like the Leña, a South American take on an old fashioned.
[caption id="attachment_398520" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] The Caipiroska (back), made with blueberry vodka, demerara sugar and blueberry lemon shrub ($13), and Leña (front), a South American take on an old fashioned, made with charred cedar, bourbon, vermouth, sour and a scorched cherry. $16.[/caption]
The space
Taking up a chunk of Saks, Leña has an all-day bar off of Queen West, a second-floor dining room and a lower-level lounge. The third level—yes, there's a third level—is where the private dining areas live.
[caption id="attachment_398517" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Breakfast is served at the takeaway counter in the main bar.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398528" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Here's the main bar again. Some of the heritage building's features were preserved.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398522" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Here's the second-level dining room.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398523" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] And again.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398530" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] A semi-private dining space sits opposite the second-floor dining room.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398515" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Bar Lala, on the lower level, is a 70-seat lounge.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398536" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Looking out a third-floor window.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398514" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] An Anthony Walsh original.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398518" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Chefs Walsh and Marteleira.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_398524" align="aligncenter" width="1593"] Elena, Walsh's mother-in-law.[/caption]){kind=link}