The Argentine Experience - Closed Door Restaurante
Leon Lightman, the creator of The Argentine Experience has an open face and a warm, unpretentious demeanour. He is confident and cheerful and interesting. Sharing cool experiences with kindred spirits make up the feel-good factor for Leon.
Leon comes from a traditional privileged background. An English family of generations of accomplished doctors and lawyers where academic averages were seen as the only graduating measure for relevant intelligence. Growing up as a hyper-active, badly-behaved middle kid of five siblings, Leon was not exactly interested in test scores. It was only when he was send to board at the Geelong Grammar School in Australia, with its strong emphasis on sports and social life, that he could switch on academic effort. Leon discovered that besides sports, emotional skills (he was like the social secretary of his friends), came naturally to him. After graduation, he travelled through Australia, Asia and Europe. He returned to the UK to study and got a Master’s degree in Law. Asked by his parents what his future plans were, he answered “travel a bit more”, and hopped on a flight to Guatemala to learn Spanish. He worked for Gap Adventure, and was awarded Best Tourleader of South America. Having seen both sides of the tourist coin, Leon understood that travellers tend to have much more fun participating in integrative, interactive social experiences. Hence the concept for The Argentine Experience. The Argentine Experience started out as a restaurant in his own house. The first man he called up to work with him as the chef, was his best friend, who lived and worked in Thailand at the time. They would invite groups, people meeting new people, who together prepared an Argentine meal with first class products, learning something about the local culture and food, getting to know each other in a surprising way, leaving work and social cliques behind. With demand quickly outgrowing the limited space of the appartment ,and through the support of an investor, they could soon move the restaurant into a beautiful mansion right in the heart of Palermo Hollywood. More and more friends have come his way to help him develop The Argentine Experience, offering many different ways and services to explore BA and Argentina, striking the right chord between professionalism, fun and creative thinking. Xpatlife definitely considers Leon Lightman a kindred spirit, unmissable on our XPP (Xpatlife Preferred Partner) list. Xpatlife Leon, and The Argentine Experience, are looking forward to creating out of the box experiences, for you.
