Union Square venture
Leon's (Union Square)
RESTAURANTS & WORK • First Person
Finally, in the waning daylight of 2024, comes a restaurant that lives at the intersection of two FOUND obsessions — ambitious new dining ventures and the modern workplace. Behold, Leon’s, a new all-day upscale Italian canteen just south of Union Square from the team behind the seductive West Village spot Anton’s.
Last month, when Leon’s swung open its doors on 12th Street, venture capitalist (and friend of FOUND) Fred Wilson declared his intention to take as many meetings there as possible. At last, a post-pandemic successor to fill the void left by Coffee Shop and Maialino, which served as magnets for the city’s VC and tech scene in the aughts and ’10s, respectively.
“I hope… we can recreate the vibe we had going at those spots before the pandemic came along and messed things up,” blogged Wilson, who also wrote that he helped convince Anton’s partners, Nick Anderer and Natalie Johnson, to set up shop here.
My first trip to Leon’s was an early Friday evening in November. When I met my companions at the bar, I spied a NYC tech founder on a stool to our left. He was back for dinner with his wife after lunch earlier in the day with another NYC tech founder. “You just missed Fred Wilson,” he said.
Anton’s is a personal favorite, and Leon’s menu certainly shares a lot of Anton’s DNA, albeit with an Egyptian twist — at dinner, for instance, whole fish can be prepared “Italian or Egyptian.” But Leon’s high ceilings, generous banquettes, and massive columns make for a markedly different experience. Where Anton’s is all warmth, Leon’s was giving off straight cool.
As at Anton’s, there are ample, warming rewards on the edges of Leon’s menu and in its salads and pastas, especially the escarole with sesame and anchovy and the lemon tagliolini. The latter, a lively twirl with bright accents of sea beans and fennel pollen, may win a place in my heart next to another deceptively layered, addictive pasta, Anton’s spaghetti anchoiade.
Over the course of our meal, the cool room filled with cool people, and by the time we left, it seemed like maybe Leon’s was going for something different here — darker, more scene-y.
In December, I returned, this time in the daylight and with most of the FOUND NY team for our second annual holiday lunch. Bathed by the sun, Leon’s was a totally different experience, and the room met the moment of our festive gathering. Co-owner Anderer told us how they’d been tinkering with the lighting, trying to get it right in this impressive, challenging space. Leon’s doesn’t have Anton’s inherent charms, baked in as they are on the corner of Hudson and 11th, but maybe it’s just warming up.
The FOUND crew sat at the big, round table in the middle of the dining room while it filled once again, and we passed around those pastas and salads (and the eggplant boulettes, wow) as sunshine flooded in. “I can’t believe I’m eating this food and looking out at The Strand,” remarked one of my colleagues. Two tables over, Fred Wilson was taking a meeting. –Josh Albertson
→ Leon's (Union Square) • 817 Broadway • Tues-Fri 8a-10p, Sat-Sun 10a-10p • Reserve.