Chef Lon Symensma grates fresh cheese onto tiramisu at gusto during a media preview before the restaurants are set to open next week in Denver on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Chef Lon Symensma has combined his Denver favorite Cholon with his newest offering Gusto at a joint location on West 17th on the south side of Sloans Lake Park. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Two new residents have docked at the twelve-story luxury Lakehouse condo building across the street from Sloan’s Lake.
Chef Lon Symensma and Christopher Davis-Massey are finally debuting their two highly anticipated restaurants: Gusto, opening March 22, and ChoLon Modern Asian’s third location, opening March 27, on the ground floor of Lakehouse at 4200 W. 17th Ave.
The co-owners of YumCha, ChoLon and Bistro LeRoux have been dreaming up this next-door-duo for the last three years.
ChoLon Sloan’s Lake will share the same signature dishes that the restaurant is known and loved for, including French onion soup dumplings with gruyere cheese and kaya toast with coconut jam and an egg cloud. Symensma and Davis-Massey opened ChoLon’s original downtown Denver restaurant in 2010, added a second in Central Park in 2019, and have another on the way in Denver International Airport. ChoLon’s all-female, Chinese dim sum team, led by Chef Michelle Xiao has filled the new menu with an array of dumplings, buns and spring rolls.
A view of Cholon and Gusto during a media preview before the restaurants are set to open next week in Denver on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Chef Lon Symensma has combined his Denver favorite Cholon with his newest offering Gusto at a joint location on West 17th on the south side of Sloans Lake Park. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Chef Lon Symensma grates fresh cheese onto tiramisu at gusto during a media preview before the restaurants are set to open next week in Denver on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Chef Lon Symensma has combined his Denver favorite Cholon with his newest offering Gusto at a joint location on West 17th on the south side of Sloans Lake Park. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
A view Cholon during a media preview before the restaurants are set to open next week in Denver on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Chef Lon Symensma has combined his Denver favorite Cholon with his newest offering Gusto at a joint location on West 17th on the south side of Sloans Lake Park. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Amalfi pie in both standard and gluten free during a media preview before the restaurants are set to open next week in Denver on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Chef Lon Symensma has combined his Denver favorite Cholon with his newest offering Gusto at a joint location on West 17th on the south side of Sloans Lake Park. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
A view Cholon during a media preview before the restaurants are set to open next week in Denver on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Chef Lon Symensma has combined his Denver favorite Cholon with his newest offering Gusto at a joint location on West 17th on the south side of Sloans Lake Park. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Rigatoni Buttera at Gusto during a media preview before the restaurants are set to open next week in Denver on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Chef Lon Symensma has combined his Denver favorite Cholon with his newest offering Gusto at a joint location on West 17th on the south side of Sloans Lake Park. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
But the Sloan’s Lake spot will include new additions, like a wok section with crab fried rice and stir-fried Malaysian noodles, and rotating specialties, such as banana leaf-broiled monkfish.
Next door, at Gusto, the menu was inspired by Symensma’s travels in Italy, including a six-month study-abroad program at the Culinary Institute of America and subsequent trips over the past two decades to everywhere from Piedmont to Sicily.
Gusto will serve rotating pizzas from Neapolitan to Sicilian style and traditional pasta dishes, like cacio e pepe or spaghetti all’assassina (or “killer spaghetti, a famous dish from Bari, Italy). There’s also melted leek focaccia or wagyu meatballs to start and sweet finishes, such as olive oil cake and tiramisu.
