A few years ago, Patty Wu and David Schneider—co-owners of Spanish fusion restaurant Tabla in Tannersville—launched a pop-up at an area restaurant. The menu? Asian tapas like pork belly bao buns, dan dan noodles, fried chicken, and chili crisp at every turn. “It was well received,” says Wu. “We realized there was an audience.”
You could say they were feeling lucky. Last December, the couple opened Lucky Catskills on Tannersville’s Main Street: An Asian café serving up comfort food, espresso drinks, and popular provisions. “Our mission at Lucky is to satisfy that hankering for specific Asian flavors,” Wu explains.
Unlike Tabla, the menu avoids fusion foods; rather, each dish shines exactly as it was intended from its native roots. “The prevalent cuisine is Taiwanese Chinese, with touches of Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Thai,” says Wu, who is Taiwanese. “The food has some dim sum aspects, but Lucky really is very typical of Asian café culture. We’ve just taken those concepts and added dishes from other countries because we couldn’t find those flavors close to home.”
Start off with the bestselling (and super moist) pork and chive dumplings or go for the soup dumplings, which feature that same pork and hot, savory broth. Pillowy bao buns are also on the menu, stuffed with stir-fried veggies or sweet fillings like custard and red bean. Everything is made fresh according to traditional Taiwanese techniques and served with a dumpling sauce developed by Schneider, which, similar to sourdough starter, “comes from a master sauce that’s over 10 years old,” says Wu. Other appetizers include spring rolls and radish cakes, a sleeper hit not typically found outside of Chinatowns.
Our mission at Lucky Catskills is to satisfy that hankering for specific Asian flavors.
Moving on to mains, you can’t miss the noodles. The eggy, perfectly toothsome strands (stretched, folded, and cut in-house) grace the bowls of rotating, aromatic dishes like tonkatsu or miso ramen, pho, dan dan noodles, and more. One of Wu’s favorites is mapo tofu, composed of silken tofu and fried pork simmered in a tongue-numbing, deep red Sichuan sauce and ladled over rice. What’s behind the menu’s ethos? “To provide authentic flavors to those who know and those who don’t know in a delicious and fun atmosphere,” explains Wu.
Lucky is open for breakfast as well and has two sandwiches to consider: the Brekky, with heirloom eggs, American cheese, and Japanese mayo, or the 888 Sando, which adds pork belly and kimchi. Pair it with a coffee flavored with black sesame, red bean, miso, or gochujang caramel.
Before you leave, check out Lucky’s curated provisions. You’ll find special rice varieties, imported seaweeds and furikake, various cooking and drizzling oils, and more. “Some staples are smallbatch and organic, which you don’t see yet with big-name brands. We have a really strong snack game, both savory and sweet,” says Wu.
Related: The Piggy Bank Brings a New Concept to a Familiar Space in Beacon
