The team behind Brush Sushi, Momonoki, Cafe Momo and Cuddlefish will open cocktail bar and Taiwanese restaurant Lucky Star Dec. 6 in the Star Metals Offices building in west Midtown.
Located at 1055 Howell Mill Road, Lucky Star is perhaps best defined by its custom-made bar, which sits in the center of the space and is surrounded on two perpendicular sides by green chairs so the bartender’s back is never to the customer.
The bar is built at counter height, so when a customer sits on one side, they have a clear view of the bartender. It’s intended to feel like a friend is serving you drinks at a kitchen counter, said co-beverage director Kirk Gibson, who works for the nonprofit organization Giving Kitchen. The certified sommelier has also overseen the bars at Brush Sushi, C. Ellett’s and former pop-up Eat Me Speak Me.
But the concept’s cocktails are far from what you might find in a friend’s kitchen, unless they use centrifuges and a rotary evaporator in their drink-making.
Credit: Courtesy of Ben Pham
Credit: Courtesy of Ben Pham
Gibson and co-beverage director Nik Soukavong have developed a cocktail menu that feels equal part a work of art and a chemistry experiment.
Jason Liang, Lucky Star owner and owner and chef of Michelin-starred omakase restaurant O by Brush, gave the pair full creative freedom.
“Kirk and I work really well together, because our palates are very different, and we approach cocktails differently,” Soukavong said.
Soukavong, whose family is from Laos, is particularly interested in Asian ingredients and spirits, while Gibson is a self-proclaimed “dork” about cocktails. If Soukavong wants to use pandan, Gibson can brainstorm about 10 different ways to incorporate it, he said.
“I love getting to have these different perspectives, have these different visions, and then think of my role as how can I facilitate that to let the other people around me shine,” Gibson said.
The menu will start with around 10 signature cocktails and rotating classics incorporating the staff’s favorite drinks. The bar will have two beer taps and six for cocktails. Of the cocktails, four will be carbonated and two will be pushed through with nitrogen. There will also be a rotating wine list.
Gibson is particularly excited about the Sabai, one of Soukavong’s creations that’s a take on mango sticky rice and made with bourbon, purple amazake, pandan, and lemon and clarified with coconut milk. And Soukavong highlighted one of Gibson’s drinks, How You Like Them, a carbonated beverage with Calvados, an apple brandy with clarified Granny Smith and Fuji apple juices.
Credit: Courtesy of Ben Pham
Credit: Courtesy of Ben Pham
Classic cocktails will include a highball, a daiquiri and a Bijou made with gin, green Chartreuse and sweet vermouth.
Liang, a native of Taiwan, decided Lucky Star would be the perfect opportunity to introduce Atlantans to the food of his home country, including its national dish, beef noodle soup.
The rest of the Taiwanese street food menu will include small plates like sweet potato fries, duck fat scallion pancakes and soft boiled tea eggs and larger plates like gan mian (hot dry noodles with Asian chives, bean spouts and noodles), beef noodle soup with braised beef shank, pickled mustard green, green onion and Taiwanese bok choy, and Three Cup Chicken with basil, ginger, garlic, soy, sesame oil and steamed rice.
From 8 a.m.-9 p.m., Lucky Star will also serve coffee, tea and pastries made by Liang’s wife, pastry chef ChingYao Wang. In the future, Liang plans to add a brunch menu and a cocktail omakase experience pairing small bites with cocktails.
Lucky Star will join several other concepts in the 8-acre Star Metals District development, including Michelin-starred restaurant Hayakawa, Prevail Coffee, Torchy’s Tacos, Sweetgreen, Savi Provisions and Flight Club. Eden, a French-inspired Mediterranean restaurant from the Delbar team will open in the development in the coming months.
Lucky Star’s cafe will be open 8 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. It will be open for lunch and dinner 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. Fridays-Sundays, and the bar will be open 5-11 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and 5 p.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays.
1055 Howell Mill Road, Atlanta. 678-994-6016, instagram.com/luckystaratl
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