Leña, a Spanish-influenced Brush Park eatery with wood-fired cooking, opens Wednesday

A new and highly anticipated Brush Park eatery with a neighborhood vibe is opening on Wednesday in Detroit's Brush Park neighborhood.

Leña, with a Spanish-influenced menu "kissed by fire" according to its website, is on Brush Street at the corner of Alfred Street and across from Bodega Cafe, Market and Bar.

Leña, whose name translates to "firewood" in Spanish, focuses on cuisine inspired by Spain's Basque and Catalan regions.

The project is from Tarun Kajeepeta and his Piquette Hospitality arm. Kajeepeta is also behind the Shelby, a popular speakeasy and restaurant in downtown Detroit's financial district. The Shelby landed at No. 5 on the 2022 Free Press 10 Best New Restaurants list.

More: Best places to eat in metro Detroit: Nearly 100 restaurants chosen by Free Press critics

Restaurant industry veteran and wine sommelier Mindy Lopus is the director of operations for Piquette Hospitality and is behind creating Leña's concept, decor and curating the wines.

The vibe

The restaurant's centerpiece is its open kitchen and hearth, which you’ll notice immediately while taking in the mild wood-burning scents. Mike Conrad is Leña’s executive chef and stressed the restaurant's wood-fire cooking mantra during a recent soft opening visit.

A New York transplant, Conrad is a Detroit restaurant industry veteran; Conrad was formerly at Magnet in Core City, which fell victim to the pandemic, and also at Corktown's Takoi and Milwaukee Junction's Oak and Reel.

At the helm of Leña's pastry offerings is metro Detroit’s well-known Lena Sarieni, a nationally acclaimed pastry chef. In 2019, Sarieni was nominated for a James Beard Award in the Rising Star Chef of the Year (now called Emerging Chef) category, which recognizes chefs 30 and younger who are “likely to make a significant impact in years to come.” Lopus said Leña is Sarieni's first foray into a restaurant since 2020 when she left Selden Standard.

Overall, the 3,000-square-foot restaurant has an open feel with open ceilings and exposed ventilation. In Brush Park, Leña is meant to a be a neighborhood spot, a daily place to gather for a drink, some pintxos, tapas and shared plates. The bar is to one side of the open kitchen and the dining room to the other. There’s seating along the Brush Street side windows, a row of built-in high-top tables as well as a lounge and bar seating at the bar that corners Alfred Street and Brush Street.

Leña’s bar program features craft cocktails, cider and beer, and a wide selection of Spanish wines by the glass and bottle.

Leña's menu

Leña's menu is seafood and vegetable-forward, with plenty of options. Its menu features pintxos, house classics and entrees as well as desserts. Similar to tapas, pintxos are small bar bites served on skewers. Menu items vary in price points from $8 to $44 and a 30-day dry-aged steak is listed at market price.

Pintxos are two pieces per order with offerings such as Basque sausage served on Mother Loaf baguette slices, tender octopus served with charred green onion and aioli, and guindilla peppers with salsa verde.

Across the menu are seafood, chicken and meat options. Its house classics feature Spanish dishes of patatas bravas (a hallmark of Spain’s tapas bars), tortilla Española, and jamon Iberico served with Bettermade potato chips. Jamon Iberico, also a hallmark of Spain, is the country’s premier cured ham. It’s similar and very thinly sliced like prosciutto.

There's a classic Spanish tortilla with layers of ultra-tender sliced potatoes and paired with fresh-tasting leek sofrito. You can add slices (two) of jamon to the tortilla for an extra $10.

Leña, 2720 Brush Street, is on the street level with apartments above at the corner of Brush and Alfred streets. It's within walking distance of Little Caesars Arena. Hours are 5-10 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 4-10 p.m. Saturday and 3-9 p.m. Sunday. For information, visit lenadetroit.com and reservations are via resy.com.

Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter. Subscribe to the Free Press.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Leña, Spanish-influenced Brush Park eatery, opens