Chinatown’s Banh Mi Boys sister shop, Lucky Red, is set to reopen

Chinatown’s Banh Mi Boys sister shop, Lucky Red, is set to reopen

Lucky Red last summer. (Image: Caroline Aksich)

Lucky Red, the Chinatown bao shop from the Banh Mi Boys team, had all the hype it needed to be a hit. Then—just months after its July opening—the takeout spot abruptly closed. A sign posted in the window indicated then that it would reopen soon enough, but the spot’s been dormant since. According to co-owner David Chau, though, Lucky Red is finally set to reopen as a full-service bar and sit-down restaurant in about a month. “The store was kind of rushed,” Chau says of the original launch. “There were a lot of execution issues.” Lucky Red’s bao were too labour-intensive to work as fast food, and the competition—from his own shop a few blocks south and the 416 Snack Bar–affiliated Peoples Eatery on the other side of Spadina—was stiff. The new Lucky Red will serve craft beer and cocktails as well as a Vietnamese-inspired snack menu (with bao, of course). Chau says that other food options might include Vietnamese-style beef tartare, fish sauce chicken wings, southern fried chicken gizzards, grilled squid and deep-fried oysters. Also, for the adventurous sweet tooth: durian pie. “We’re not going to settle,” Chau says. “We’re going to make sure everything is proper.”