LoHi Gets a New Taco Place Today

While Lon Symensma’s Kaya Kitchen and LeRoux won’t debut downtown until later this year, the chef has another new project to taste in the meantime. BorraCho Tacos opens today inside Avanti F&B, serving six tortilla-filled combinations as well as a few bowls and a breakfast burrito.

“We nailed it this time,” Symensma said of the new concept, which he thinks will work perfectly for the LoHi food hall’s all-day crowds and happy-hour drinkers. Known for his pan-Asian menus at ChoLon, Cho77, and Kaya, Symensma is now branching out with street tacos. “Our menu is meant to push the boundaries of what a taco can be,” he added.

The stall’s signature taco is a play on Symensma’s best-known dish at ChoLon — the sweet onion and gruyere soup dumplings. Here, corn tortillas from Tortillas Mexico are filled with shredded short rib, queso, sweet onions, and pickled chili. Other taco fillings, too, hint at Symensma’s Southeast Asian influences: The Tipsy Thai comes with shrimp satay, sriracha mayo, avocado, mint, and radish. Then there are the more traditional items.

Josie Sexton/Eater

Customers will want to try chef Kevin Chu’s al pastor and carne asada. The pork in the former is shaved straight from a spit and topped in the traditional way with roasted pineapple and cotija. In the latter, charred steak is piled with a spicy-sweet piquillo pepper salsa and creamy guacamole. At $4.45 each, they’re not the cheapest traditional tacos, but they are on special (50 cents-off) during happy hour. Eaters should wash them down with BorraCho’s horchata or a beer cocktail from the bar at Avanti.

Status: BorraCho Tacos is now open on the second floor of Avanti, 3200 North Pecos Street, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, until 10 p.m. on Thursdays and until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Josie Sexton/Eater

• Chef Lon Symensma Announces Two More Downtown Restaurants [EDEN]