Gilda Basque Tavern Brings Spanish Pintxos To West Town With Crowdfunding Help

WEST TOWN — A Basque-inspired restaurant helmed by a trio of experienced Chicago chefs is opening this week in West Town, complete with riffs on classic smaller bites and unique takes on larger dishes, cocktails and more.

Gilda opens Thursday at 1421 W. Chicago Ave., the former home of Chi-Latin restaurant, which closed last year. The restaurant held a soft opening Monday night.

Chef-partners Jeremy Leven, Rafael Esparza and Anthony Baier — who have cooked at restaurants like mfk., Mama Delia, Momotaro and Kimski — have teamed up with beverage director Inés de Haro to launch their version of a Basque tavern.

The chefs have hosted numerous pop-up dining events in recent years, including under the Gilda brand and through Esparza and Baier’s FAFO imprint.

Central to the restaurant’s concept will be a rotating menu of pintxos — the bite-sized dishes served in bars or other lively settings in northern Spain — which will be available at Gilda’s bar and in its more formal dining room.

That includes the restaurant’s namesake dish featuring olives, piparra peppers and anchovies, which takes its name from the 1946 Rita Hayworth film “Gilda.”

Gilda’s opening comes a few months after its owners announced a crowdfunding campaign to help cover renovation and opening costs. The effort raised $20,000.

After fine-tuning the menu and finishing the renovations, Leven and Esparza this week said they’re finally ready to welcome diners in to a “warm and convivial atmosphere” inspired by Basque culinary culture and their years of experience in Chicago’s restaurant industry.

“For most of the world, especially the Old World, food traditions are steeped in that: in tradition, in doing something the same way,” Leven said. “But in the Basque Country, they’ve embraced creativity, and that was really the spark point of why we wanted to open Gilda, first as a pop-up and then as a restaurant.”

Gilda will feature a walk-in only bar section as well as a more formal dining area that will take reservations, for which an extended menu is still in the works, Leven and Esparza said.

Dishes on the restaurant’s opening menu include the Gilda pinxto as well as cod croquetas, a “bikini sando” with Japanese egg salad, a tortilla española and a matrimonio, which includes cured anchovy, tomato confit and charred pepper.

One larger signature dish highlighted by the chefs is the lamb albondigas, which was partly inspired by a mission to diversify the menu from its frequent use of Iberico pork, Esparza said with a laugh.

“We were able to get a nice halal lamb and do really cool stuff with it, just serving this very simple format over the rice,” he said. “That’s my favorite dish so far.”

The cocktail list crafted by de Haro includes the “Generalissimo” with a “jamón fat-washed mezcal” and a Basque scotch, as well as the “Lady Gilda” dirty martini made with a house brine that includes anchovy.

About 75-80 percent of the wines on offer will be sourced from Spain, Leven estimated.

“We’re in our heart a wine and beer and more simple cocktail-focused menu, but there’s definitely a lot of craft being put into the cocktails as well,” he said.

Leven and Esparza are particularly looking forward to dinner service on Monday nights, when Gilda will be walk-in-only and the chefs will experiment with flavors and dishes.

The weekly “industry night” is similar to their pop-up dinners over the years, where the chefs will try new out dishes that, if successful, could make it onto Gilda’s permanent menu.

“We don’t necessarily fit into any one straight form, or mold. We are who we are, and we’re inspired by what we’re inspired by, and we want to just embrace that,” Leven said. “And we found a sort of connection with the cuisine of the Basque Country.”

As Gilda prepares to open this week, the chefs are reflecting on the long and sometimes arduous process that got them here.

One major setback happened this spring when the restaurant was denied a loan from the federal Small Business Administration, sparking their crowdfunding campaign. Future customers could donate to receive “compañero cards” that qualified them for various discounts once Gilda opened.

The restaurant was able to raise about $20,000 through the initiative, which allowed the owners to continue with renovations and helped cover other opening costs, along with help from a few “Home Depot credit cards,” Esparza said.

“It completely opened my eyes to a whole different perspective about restaurant ownership,” Esparza said. “Like thinking that you need X, Y, Z amount of money for stuff that, in the long run, is mostly just window dressing.”

Gilda joins a bustling independent restaurant scene on Chicago Avenue and the larger West Town area, where some of the city’s top chefs in recent years have opened a wide-range of concepts, from steakhouses to pasta spots and bakeries.

Leven and Esparza said they’re thrilled to add their take on Basque food to the mix.

“We’re excited to welcome in our neighborhood and our city and be embraced by the people who are excited about the kind of food that we want to create,” Leven said. “We hope that this can be something that other young independent food creators and chefs and bartenders and managers can use as an example, that this can be done.”

Gilda will be open 5-10 p.m. Thursdays, 5 p.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday and 5-10 p.m. Sunday-Monday.