It’s almost been a month since I visited Chef Leo on opening weekend at his “baby” – the Argentinian tapas bar he’s been talking and dreaming of for about, oh, three years now.
I’m remiss for not getting this post out earlier but Leo’s gracious hosting of me and my two best foodie friends, Terri and Greg, occurred on Saturday evening (March 9th), just hours before my flight to Oregon. There in Oregon, I faced moving our beloved Mom into assisted living. As my brother and I got her situated and worked through sorting all the furniture and memories in her house, I was also renting my own UHaul truck and loading it to the gills with my own stuff for my new rental here in Laguna Beach (But that’s another story here.)
Suffice to say that my singular Tango experience probably kept me motivated and moving through the following three weeks of personal hell … because I’ve got to tell you, Tango is one memorable experience in sight, sound and taste. Once you visit, you’re hooked. You just want to keep coming back for more.
Suffice to say that my singular Tango experience probably kept me motivated and moving through the following three weeks of personal hell … because I’ve got to tell you, Tango is one memorable experience in sight, sound and taste. Once you visit, you’re hooked. You just want to keep coming back for more.
Leo is one talented Chef with a vision that endured beyond Covid, the planning commission meetings, the city council drama over his requested parklet, and everything in between. Thankfully, the City Council awarded Chef Leo a two-parking-space parklet in front of his tiny restaurant, which will be a godsend given that his teeny, maybe 30-seat restaurant is already packed to the gills
I was delighted with Tango’s opening even before I tried the food - I knew it meant that much to Chef. Chef Leo first landed in Laguna Beach when North Laguna’s Hotel Joaquin opened in September 2018. This is a storied chef, who rose to regional fame during his tenure at the fabled Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood and as the caterer for the Academy Awards and Golden Globes.
In mere weeks after its opening, Hotel Joaquin’s restaurant, Saline, began receiving rave reviews. A few years later, Chef Leo moved on from Saline with plans for the Seahorse (the timing was never on) and Tango (the timing took … awhile).
As he toyed with the tapas menu for Tango over those long months of delay, he proved the town’s pinch hitter for large venues that needed an extremely experienced and talented chef at the helm. Last summer, he jumped into Terra just days before the Festival grounds opened, bringing the talented Argentinian chef and buddy, Maro Molteni, with him. The two handled 7 Degrees and the F&B at Art Affair, too. Leo even stepped into Hotel Laguna’s Larsen to carry the restaurant through its busiest summer season.
But through it all, Chef Leo’s eye was on the prize - opening his own Argentinian experience in the pint-sized space on upper Forest Avene that had been, in various iterations, a jewelry store, an art gallery and a teahouse.
So, let’s talk about the Tango “Tapas”
For starters, if you’ll see in the gallery photos there, Chef Leo is working with The Smallest Kitchen in Laguna Beach. It’s a kitchen that’s even smaller than former Kya’s kitchen once run by the talented Chef Craig Connole at Casa del Camino. How THAT Kya kitchen – hardly the size of my first college apartment kitchen – ever turned out stellar meals for 70 seats on the main level and the 60-seat Rooftop Bar, was beyond me … and a thing of continued nightmares, I’m sure, for our dear Chef Connole who retired from that awesome creation of his five years ago.
But HERE you have an Argentinian chef … you know, Argentinian … the guys who invented giant meat-churning grills and hoods that are more like an acre or two in size … but this award-winning Chef doesn’t even have a grill. And no hood, either.
He has two ovens and a little toaster thing. (Now, THIS would make a great reality chef show … Stranded in the middle of nowhere with only an oven and a little toaster thing.)
Chef Leo, though, remains dauntless. Where most chefs in this situation would maybe decide on a few salads and a vegetable soup, Chef Leo’s menu is rich in flavor and texture and MEAT …
Chef shows up first at our table with the Italian Carpaccio, a veritable pile-on of carefully cured and aged meats, a dish he perfected while in Rome. (No, I’m not kidding. Chef Leo earned his first award-winning stripes in Rome.)
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m accustomed to tapas being the size of … oh, maybe an egg roll at most. This gigantic plate must be what Argentinians define as “tapas” … because the plates that kept coming didn’t get any smaller.
As we dig through this fantastic heap of cured meats, rare cheeses, pickled veggies and even truffles, Chef Leo shows up with the Charred Avocado dish, a delectable deconstructed Avocado Toast with charred olive-oil-y slabs of sliced baguette and a perfectly cheeky sous vide egg.
Now, one of the weird things about me - anytime I find Avocado Toast on a restaurant menu, I have to try it. It’s a compulsion; I can’t explain it. Perhaps it’s because I love all the ingredients it promises. Maybe I’ve become mesmerized with all the many ways these chefs define what “Avocado Toast” actually means and looks like … usually to my disappointment. This, “Tango Toast” however, proved the crown jewel of Avocado Toasts. It needs its own trophy, even a rack of trophies would be sufficient. It has, in fact, ruined me for all other Avocado Toasts.
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At this point, our teeny table meant for two is housing the three of us, our wine glasses and side plates and two giant dishes. And, then, along comes the Burrata and Acorn Squash, which reads quite innocuously on the menu but shows up looking like this:
What an imaginative mix of tastes and textures! (And who knew you could actually make acorn squash taste this good?) This might have proven the winner of the evening - so very inventive and perfectly balanced with the sweet, salty and savory notes.
It’s here, at the Burrata and Acorn Squash dish, that we realize: Tango is really an art class with the coolest of teachers. We’re given these wild options and get to load optional layers of this inventive stuff into our own palettes to create our own mini-designs of flavor.
It’s here, at the Burrata and Acorn Squash dish, that we realize: Tango is really an art class with the coolest of teachers. We’re given these wild options and get to load optional layers of this inventive stuff into our own palettes to create our own mini-designs of flavor.
As we consider calling it a night because we’re stuffed to the gills, Chef Leo appears with yet another “taster” - a sizable, sizzling skillet of Jumbo Shrimp Gnocchi. Seriously, it just can’t get any better. Still bubblin’ in its cast iron, the shrimp tucks in with housemade (of course) gnocchi with hefty slices of sautéed black truffle and fresh chive spears, assuring us that they’re the doctor-recommended vegetable offset to this crazy-rich dish.
After a few decadent bites of this, could I eat another bite? Absolutely not.
Could I mosey a peek at the next-door teeny table with yet another dish? Absolutely. They even let me take a photo of their Brisket French Dip. And no, for the record … I agree with you: This doesn’t look like a “tapas” dish either.
Newest Developments and Hours
In just the three weeks since its opening, Chef Leo has expanded operational hours and added a Sunday brunch. Hours are:
5 pm - 12 am Thursday to Saturday.
10 am - 3 pm Sunday brunch
Starting this week on April 10th, weekly Wednesdays will feature wine tasting events from 4 pm to midnight.
Tango: Pure Joy
The other day, I was teaching in my “Pop Up Coaching Booth” (my other life) about the feeling of pure joy … about landing on something that just feels rich with rightness. Hopefully, in our life spans, we land on that pure joy purpose for ourselves, and all is well with the world.
Tango is pure joy.
You feel it the moment you walk in the door. You feel it in Chef Leo as he strides around the room and trots up the curving stairs to check on his peeps in the turret. You feel it in the phenomenally crafted food. You feel it in the delight of discovery in the patrons.
And you feel it when fellow restaurateur chefs of our town crowd in to welcome Chef Leo Bongarra to a life of new and deserved visibility in Laguna Beach. Just that evening, longtime Zinc’s icon John Secretan slipped in and chatted with me at the neighboring table, and neighboring Broadway/Top Chef Amar Santana arrived with celebratory cigars
In the culinary town that is Laguna Beach, you’ve just raised the culinary bar, my friend. Congratulations on seeing the dream through, Chef Leo.
Tango is at 305 Forest Avenue, Laguna Beach (look for the waving Argentinian flag). No reservations are taken at this time.
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