Gusto opened Oct. 22 with a charitable gesture: the new Bethesda restaurant donated one hundred percent of proceeds from its opening night to Whitman, Walter Johnson and Bethesda-Chevy Chase.

Gusto made a total of $6,137.02 to be split evenly between the three high schools, so Whitman will receive a little over $2,000 from the event, Gusto founder and CEO Joshua Grim said.

“[We wanted] to be good neighbors and develop great relationships,” Gusto general manager Russ Behrman said. “We’ve heard that they are excellent schools in the area and we felt that it was the right thing to do to help support our high schools, which is definitely one of the most important things in our country.”

The Greater Bethesda-Chevy Chase Center of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Gusto Oct. 29, where the principals of the three high schools being benefitted each accepted checks for their portions of the opening night’s proceeds.

Another location of the restaurant will open in Silver Spring in two weeks, and money from opening night there will similarly be going to schools in the Silver Spring area, Grim said.

The restaurant experience

Walking into new Italian grill Gusto, customers smell the zesty tomato sauce combined with homemade meatballs and flatbreads, and their eyes set on the steam swirling out of the fresh pasta sitting in a bowl.

After the philanthropic opening, Gusto will continue to contribute to the community by adding to the variety of fast casual restaurants.

“I always admired the fast-casual trend and the brand leaders,” Grim said. “ I really thought something was missing, especially in the Italian genre, so there was an opportunity to create something unique and special.”

Grim compared his restaurant to Chipotle: Gusto also focuses on high quality ingredients such as organic, gluten-free, all-natural, antibiotic and hormone-free options. Grim said some of the vegetables are grown on the farm he lived on as a child.

Customers also ordered their food through a system similar to Chipotle’s. First, customers choose between salad, flatbread and pasta. Then, they select their protein from options including grilled chicken, marinated steak, meat or turkey meatball, pulled pork or vegetarian with peppers and onions. Lastly, guests choose from sauces and a selection of vegetables and cheeses.

Since I’m a vegetarian, I took the peppers-and-onions route. The vegetables tasted fresh and were spiced with Italian seasonings which made it taste even more like a traditional Italian restaurant. The employees were extremely generous with the serving size of pasta and toppings, which left me with a dinner’s worth of leftovers

Prices were inexpensive and affordable for a fast and yet still fresh Italian meal ranging from six to eight dollars.

When customers walk through the line, workers are friendly and interact with the guests.

“When it was my turn to select what I wanted, the employees said ‘how are you,’ which really surprised me and impressed me at the same time,” junior Olivia Doran said. “Usually at fast food restaurants you just tell the employee what you want and then pay for your meal.”

The friendly team of Gusto employees includes juniors Maya Rosen and Arda Bell.

Rosen said working with the other employees, which range from high-schoolers to sixty-year-olds, is a fascinating experience. Having employees from so many different backgrounds is rewarding to the customers, she explained.

Grim said the word “gusto” in English means to have a taste for life or zest for life, which ties into the restaurant’s motto.

“I think that’s what our restaurant is trying to embody,” Grim said. “We source our ingredients and try to make it as tasty and healthy as possible, so we can be an all-around family-friendly brand.”