My good friend Allie and I decided that we would partake in these festivities, at Denver's new famous restaurant Cholon. Cholon is a Southeast Asian restaurant that incorporates French influences. It is also up for a James Beard award in the category of, best new restaurant. And just in case you didn't know....... the James Beard Award is like the oscars for best culinary-ness. I myself did not know this either until about 3 weeks ago.
Cholon was recently opened by, Chef Lon Symensma, who recently left the amazing NYC restaurant Buddakan to open his first signature restaurant in Denver.
Allie weaseled us a 7:45 spot, which is almost impossible to get. At first the only reservations that were open, were either 5:30 or 9:30. Now, according to my friend Mark, they are completely booked through March 14th.
On the eve of our fine dining experience, we had learned a little secret. But before I mention the secret, let me enlighten you on the logistics of the 5280 week........As not to discriminate against the singles in this world, all restaurants must offer a $26.40 menu too. Usually it is the exact same menu as the $52.80, only 1 meal instead of 2. But Cholon had thrown in a little twist. They were serving their meals family style. This meant you received 2 small plates (appetizers); and then you split the wok, entree, and dessert.
Ok, now the secret (duh, duh duhn). Earlier that night, we learned that if you asked for the single menu you would get 1 small plate, 1 wok, 1 entree, and 1 dessert. We were about to find out that this was all a lie.
Once Allie and I arrived at Cholon, we went to the bar and ordered a bottle of wine; while we waited for our table. 2 single ladies getting ready to get our single lady meals on. The hostess seats us at the table. The waitress arrives. Allie lets her know that we would be participating in the single, $26.40, meal. Conversation went something like this:
Allie: We are going to be doing the 26.40 menu because we're separate, how does that work here?
Waitress: Well this is a family style menu so we don't have a 26.40 menu
Allie: Well we have already heard from people, that have been here, that you do.
Waitress: You have to sit at a table by yourself to get that menu.
My Unspoken Thoughts: It is already tough enough to be single, and now to get the single menu, one would have to sit at a single table by oneself, surrouronded by couples, whilst one eats alone...Alone.
Allie: Oh ok, well that is just not what we heard from people who have already been here.
Waitress: Well we don't
Allie: Don't worry about it, just letting you know what we heard.
Waitress: I haven't heard about it, but let me go get a manager.
********Small wait, Allie and I chit chat, have a sip or two of wine, manager approaches***********
Manager: So what was the problem
Allie: Oh, no problem, we had just heard, from people that have already been here, that you offered a $26.40 menu.
Manager: We don't have one.
Allie: Yeah that is fine, we were just asking , since that's what we heard.
Manager: The menu has changed since we started this.
Allie: Ok, yeah. That's fine.
Throughout all this Allie and I have already decided what we wanted to eat. The waitress returns. Doesn't really say a word. She just holds her little waitress writing pad and timidly stares. So naturally, Allie looks at her and begins to order. Isn't that what you do?
Allie: We will have the pork belly pot stickers, the calamari, the sausage fried rice, the lamb shank, and we will decide on the dessert later.
Waitress: Silence (and walks off)
Next thing we know a guy brings us this delicious something that you dip into a tomato chili jam (obviously I cannot remember what it is called.)
I remember the guy that brought it cracked a joke, and said it is basically that pre-meal filler. Next thing we know the guy is re-filling our wine glasses.
Allie: Wait, are you are waiter now? What happened with the other one?
Waiter: Yes. She felt that you didn't particularly care for her. And for that we are sorry. She was a sensitive soul.
Both Allie and I were stunned, we had scared off the waitress....very unintentionally of course. Our new waiter however was very pleasant, and I might add, that he had the sexy hair. He cracked jokes and was very funny so we did not have much time to think. Next came the small bites. In our case we enjoyed pork belly pot stickers and calamari with a lemon-chili aioli sauce, that I wanted to finish off with a spoon.
Next course was the wok. We ordered the chinese sausage fried rice with poached egg. The poached egg came on top and you had to smash it.
As we were enjoying our Wok and waiting for our entree, another manager emerged from the back and asked us how we were enjoying things. We told him things were wonderful and delicious. After he left, we noticed that this manager did not go to any other tables, but had walked back to the kitchen and whispered something in our waiters ear.
This got us thinking. Did everyone in the restaurant really believe we were that upset. We had just asked a simple question about the menu. And now we seemed to be the drama, that the restaurant revolved around. Then, once again, before we could think for too long our entree came. It was a tamarind glazed lamb shank, with spiced peanuts, and asian pear.
However, after dining on our entree, we began to think again. It is slightly insulting that our waitress left us because we had asked a question about the menu. She had not told us anything. In fact no one had. All the sudden our server had just changed from woman to sexy haired man....like we would notice or something. I told Allie, if another manager came by that we should tell him that although we are enjoying our experience, that it was a little insulting.
I mean, picture this. The area we were sitting in was a very long booth, in which you are very close to your neighbor. Our former waitress was constantly on either side of us waiting on other patrons. While our current waiter is running from his normal section to our tiny table to wait on us hand and foot.
But then....the dessert came. It was chocolate cake, salted peanut ice cream, and toasted marshmallow.
It was amazing. I generally don't like desserts, but I was in heaven. I must have been distracted by the amazing-ness because when the next person came to ask us how the meal was. I figured it was another manager.
Allie: Food was amazing, but the service was not as great. Our waiter Chris is awesome though.
Me: It was just kind of insulting when they switched waiters on us.
"Manager": Oh I heard about this. Please enjoy your dessert, I don't want to interrupt it, and I will come back.
I finally look up from shoveling my mouth full of the salted peanut ice cream. It is then that I realize, we are not talking to a manager we are talking to the guy who started this place. I ask.
Me: You are the head chef
Chef Lon: Yes, and the owner. Enjoy your desserts and I will come back
Me: WOW! Your up for the Jjjj (suddenly all that could come to me was the Justin Beiber award. I almost asked the man who is up for one of the most prestigious food awards, if he was up for the Justin Beiber awards.)
Chef Lon: (helping me out). Yeah, we are up for the James Beard award and kicking ass.
Me: That is so awesome. When you come back can we take a picture with you?
(First of all, after my almost epic justin beiber award fail.... who asks things like that to a world-renowned chef in his high class fancy shmancy restaurant...... Apparently I do.)
Chef Lon: (Inquisitive look) You want to take a picture? Ok when I come back we will.
Chef Lon leaves, I look at Allie and say...."He isn't coming back is he?"
Well Chef Lon Symensma did come back. And he is just the friendliest man in the world. He asked us where we wanted to take a picture with him and I said:
Me: (Pointing to the kitchen) let's take a picture in front of your home.
Chef Lon: I live further away, not here?
(And here I go, awkwardly talking again. Those of you who know me well, know that I tend to completely leave out the beginning of my sentences sometimes...leaving you hanging as to what I am talking about. It's like I just expect you to know.)
Me: (Now slightly embarrassed) No, I meant I would rather take it in front of the kitchen because it is like your home away from home.
So we proceeded to take the picture. I look heinously awful, but posted it anyways. Chef Lon also gave us a business card and told us to use it to make a reservation whenever we wanted. Guess who can get into the busy restaurant with no more reservations..... without slipping a 20.....Allie and me!
Our night was coming to a close, but before we left I ran into the powder room. There a girl asked me, "You know the owner?!" She had seen him talking to us and taking a photo with us. It made me feel special.
The night turned out to be absolutely fabulous. I highly recommend Cholon and Steve the waiter. Chef Sysmensma is an amazing chef/owner/guy and I wish him the best of luck in Denver. I would give him my vote for the James Beard (aka Justin Beiber) award!
Stay tuned in the future for more fine dining with Allie.....as we plan to try all the fine dining experiences that Denver has to offer.
