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Fine dining typically isn’t a place for young children. But at lelé kitchen, you’ll find high chairs for babies and toddlers, diapers and wet wipes in the bathroom and even an elevated kids’ menu – amenities not often paired with Marin Miyagi oysters and Tsar Nicoulai caviar.
“It’s a place where families can come together, with their kids, with their parents,” said owner Lena Leskina, who has three children. “The main goal (is) to make this space where the people can come and be at home here.”
Leskina opened lelé kitchen, a Californian farm-to-table meets Eastern European restaurant, on Oct. 24 in Los Gatos. A sister restaurant to its nextdoor cafe lelé cake, lelé kitchen is an upscale full-service restaurant featuring an extensive California wine list and a menu that changes daily.
Previous iterations of the menu have included appetizers like goat cheese and garlic macarons ($15) and entrees like Binchotan-grilled Snake River Farms wagyu flat iron ($62), as well as Eastern European dishes such as butterbrots, mini sandwiches, ($10-$16) and draniki, Belarusian potato pancakes that are widely eaten in Eastern Europe ($22-$24). The restaurant serves its draniki with smoked salmon or smoked trout, utilizing Californian ingredients like avocado and cilantro crema. Tsar Ncoulai caviar can also be added for an extra charge.
The wine list features over 50 California wines from Napa, Sonoma, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Monterey and more. Bottles range from $45-$650 and glasses from $12-$25. A small selection of beer is available, as well as nonalcoholic options like Kally’s “Golden Sparkler” and Olipop soda.
“Nothing from our drink menu (is) from other states or countries,” Leskina said.
Desserts are made in lelé cake’s kitchen, but there is no overlap with the cafe’s menu. Find all new sweets like an apple cake with white chocolate, ginger and shortbread crumble that looks like a real apple ($20). For the kids, there’s organic chicken cutlet with mashed potatoes and honey glazed carrots ($18) or plain pasta for picky eaters.
“I’m a foodie, and I like to go to restaurants…and I’m almost always with my kids, and 90% of our visits are very challenging for me to find food for kids,” Leskina said. “Usually it’s something not too healthy, like nuggets or French fries, so I’d prefer to have something healthier with more vegetables.”
The menu is developed by head chef Ulad Skoblia, and the wine list is curated by advanced sommelier Fedar Kamkou, both from Belarus. Leskina, who immigrated from Russia in 2018, connected with Skoblia and Kamkou over their similar cultural backgrounds and liked that much of Skoblia’s previous experience was as a private chef cooking in homes.
Leskina launched the lelé brand back in 2015 after starting a custom cake business out of her home. She was living in Moscow and was on maternity leave from her full-time electrical engineering job following the birth of her first child. Inspired by the home bakers she saw on Instagram, she began teaching herself how to bake.
“I (felt) even more (of) a passion, like addiction, when I did it better and better,” she said.
Marin Miyagi oysters topped with preserved lemon and Champagne mignonette ($4.25), horseradish cream and Tsar Nicoulai smoked trout roe ($5), and winter hibiscus tea granita ($4.25) at lelé kitchen in Los Gatos. Courtesy lelé kitchen. 
One ounce of Tsar Nicoulai white sturgeon estate caviar with buckwheat blinis, creme fraiche, egg and red onion ($130) at lelé kitchen in Los Gatos. Courtesy lelé kitchen.
She began creating custom cake orders under the name lelé cake, a combination of the first two letters of her first and last name. What made her cakes stand out from the competition, she said, was likely her art education. In Russia, there are high-intensity after-school programs in which students receive diplomas after five or six years. The cake business became quite profitable and allowed her more time with her baby.
“I was surprised, actually, that I (could) have even more income than I had in office when (I worked) 40 hours (a) week,” Leskina said.
Then in 2018, she won the green card lottery, moving to the Bay Area to live with her sister who had immigrated one year prior.
At the time, she was 35 weeks pregnant and had with her “(my) 3-year-old boy, two cats, two luggages and nothing more.”
To continue her custom cake business, Leskina rented space in a commercial kitchen. A few months later, the pandemic began. Capitalizing on the lower cost of rent, she began looking for her own commercial kitchen space with a small storefront – but none were available in the area. So she began looking at larger storefronts, realizing the size would necessitate expanding her menu to include savory items. In 2022, she opened her first brick-and-mortar eatery, lelé cake, in a former Subway in Los Gatos.
With a menu developed by Katya Pervushina, now the head chef at upscale Eastern European restaurant Dacha in San Francisco, lelé cake began offering toasts, syrniki (cottage cheese pancakes) and gruyere waffles in addition to its signature cakes. Leskina created a kids’ corner with a play kitchen set, children’s books and more, so that kids could enjoy the cafe just as much as their parents. Business boomed, and just a month after opening lelé cake, Leskina was already considering expansion.
“Our landlords, they came a few times to our store, and they said, ‘Oh my God, this plaza look very full of life,’ because before it was empty plaza, silent plaza,” Leskina said.
In 2023, Leskina welcomed her third child as well as a new business venture, acquiring the space next door to lelé cake, formerly a Starbucks.
“It looks like every era of my life comes with (a) new baby,” Leskina said.
Mackerel crudo with cucumber, radish, citruses, horseradish, pistachio, yuzu and parsley oil ($22) at lelé kitchen in Los Gatos. Courtesy lelé kitchen. 
Salad with arugula, baby fennel, Hachiya persimmon, walnuts, beetroot chips, soy and mirin ($20) at lelé kitchen in Los Gatos. Courtesy lelé kitchen. 
Wild mushrooms and English peas housemade fettuccine with dill rye bread crumble and chervil ($33) at lelé kitchen in Los Gatos. Courtesy lelé kitchen.
She initially planned to use the space to expand lelé cake, host workshops and serve beer and wine, but 15 months later, lelé kitchen was born. Still in its infancy, lelé kitchen will later offer weekend brunch with an entirely different menu and service style than lelé cake.
“This is a space for me and for families like my family to find anything for almost every family member,” Leskina said.
lelé kitchen, 14180 Blossom Hill Road, Los Gatos; 669-208-9621, Instagram: @lele.kitchen.ca. Open Thursday to Monday from 5-9 p.m.
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