A Conversation with Amilinda’s Chef Gregory León

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Chef Gregory León and his restaurant, Amilinda (315 E. Wisconsin Ave.), have enjoyed local and national spotlights since opening in 2015. León is a three-time James Beard Award nominee, most recently for Outstanding Chef, his first nomination in a national category (his previous two nominations were for Best Chef Midwest.) Amilinda is an annual favorite on Eater’s essential Milwaukee restaurants list.

Amilinda offers a new lunch service, and León continues to build camaraderie among Milwaukee chefs while giving back to the community where he launched his culinary success.

From Venezuela to the Midwest

León was born in Tulsa, Okla. His family moved to Venezuela when he was five years old. His father is Venezuelan, and his mother’s family is Jewish. “You can’t get more than three of us together without there being some sort of food,” León reflects. Big family dinners were a regular part of his childhood, and he often took his mother’s cookbooks into his room to read them.

As a young adult, he moved back to Oklahoma and briefly attended college. While deciding what to do next in life, he saw the TV series “Great Chefs.” “This was before being a chef was considered a cool career. The Food Networkhas just started, and it wasn’t like it is now, with ‘rock star’ chefs.”

Inspired by “Great Chefs,” León took a bus from Oklahoma to San Francisco. There, he worked in kitchens for the next 18 years. Citing San Francisco’s cost of living and realizing he’d likely never be able to open his own restaurant there, he listened to a friend’s suggestion to open a restaurant someplace else. 

León packed his belongings and traveled throughout the U.S. for five months. Milwaukee was not on his radar, but a friend had insisted that he come to Milwaukee.

“I thought, where is this place? I looked on a map and thought it looked pretty far north, and pretty cold. But when I came out at the end of 2012 and was here for about a week, I loved the people. I ate at a few restaurants because I wanted to make sure that anywhere I moved to had a strong local food scene.”

A meal at Odd Duck, along with a conversation with owners Melissa Buchholz and Ross Bachhuber, enticed León to settle in Milwaukee. “I feel like I was supposed to end up in Milwaukee. I’m not one of those people who is into metaphysical stuff, but I felt like Milwaukee was in the cards. Amilinda has been open for nine years.”

Building Community Through Amilinda

New to Milwaukee, León knew that he wanted to open restaurant but didn’t have the capital. At the encouragement of his then-partner, Orry, they launched the concept for Amilinda and started doing pop-ups in 2013. As the pop-ups gained a following, Chef Nell Benton, who had owned The National Café at the time, invited them to use her space for Amilinda dinners. They opened Amilinda’s brick-and-mortar restaurant in 2015.

While pop-ups, food trucks and collaborative spaces are common today, León says testing Amilinda’s concept first as a pop-up was launchpad for success. “If anybody wants to take the time to open a restaurant, I highly recommend opening a pop-up first so people get to know who you are.”

Despite bumps in the road such as the COVID-19 pandemic and separating from Orry—they remain friends, and León is grateful for Orry’s tenacious encouragement and support over the years—the journey has been remarkable. León praises Amilinda’s dedicated staff. While the creative dishes have led to three James Beard Award nominations—he says that’s one part of the equation.

“It’s really a combination of things, obviously the food, but I also like to think it’s the work we do to help others. These nominations reflect the work I do, but also the work the people here with me do,” he shares. “It’s incredibly humbling to be nominated in a category on a national level. It’s very rewarding, and that makes us want to work even harder.”

León has paid it forward by hosting other chefs that have gone on to open their own restaurants, such as Wolfgang and Whitney Schaefer of Uncle Wolfie’s Breakfast Tavern.

Amilinda was one of several restaurants that participated in the Hungry Hearts program to prepare free meals for people in need. León hosted a Tables Across Borders event, in which refugees prepare dinners and take home 100% of the sales. He’s hosted fundraisers for Vivent Health; a collaborative chef’s dinner for the Human Rights Campaign; and fundraisers for The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and local dog rescue groups. 

Amilinda’s new to-go lunch service features a small menu of sandwiches and starters each Thursday and Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Orders can be placed online at order.toasttab.com/online/amilinda

On April 29, León will host five of Milwaukee's rising star chefs to cook a five-course dinner. Guest chefs include Trevor Carper, sous chef at Amilinda; Adam Kemmler, executive chef at 1033; Elija Loebbaka, executive chef at Nite Wolf; Sammi Sandrin, owner/chef of Midwest SAD; and Jesse Wendell, executive chef at Uncle Wolfie’s. For tickets, visit exploretock.com/amilinda/event/477682/the-rising-stars-popup.