Inside Leonetta, where candlelight, velvet banquettes, and Chef Ed Cotton’s Coastal Mediterranean menu are quietly running the show
Walking into Leonetta feels like someone teleported a Riviera villa onto a Murray Hill corner. Think warm woods, over 100 live plants cascading from the ceiling, buttery yellow banquettes, and just enough candlelight to make you forget you are still in Manhattan. The whole thing is the brainchild of Chef Ed Cotton, a Top Chef finalist with decades of fine-dining pedigree, who's built a menu that leans "Coastal Mediterranean" without boxing itself into any one region. It's giving sun-drenched seaside dinner party. It's giving date night. It's giving "I need to come back with everyone I know."
We started strong with the Baharat Roasted Mushrooms with sour cherries and cipollini onions, which brought a warm-spiced sweetness we didn't know we needed. Right next to it: the Baba Ghanoush , smoky charred eggplant balanced by sun-dried tomato and pickled onion, which is basically a warm hug in dip form
Then came the Salmon Crudo, glossed in limoncello with basil seeds and pickled red onion — light, bright, and the kind of dish you order again "just to be sure."
And then, the main event: Pork Shank Shawarma, served with pita, turmeric pickles, and the restaurant's signature 6th Ave white and red sauce. Fall-apart tender, deeply savory, and worth every bite.
If dinner wasn't enough to convince you, Chef Cotton has also reimagined Leonetta's brunch with a Coastal Mediterranean spin — think Shakshuka Eggs, Eggs Benedict, a Breakfast Egg Wrap, Black Truffle Scramble, and a Greek Yogurt Berry Bowl for the lighter appetites. And if you're trying to make a Sunday into a moment, there's now a full Spritz bar plus the "Better Than a Birkin" cocktail, made for four — because brunch should always come with a little drama.
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