In landlocked Colorado, full of many residential transplants, it’s a common thread to hear diners express a desire for the comfort of Southern hospitality and a longing for quality seafood. Luchals serves up the best of both worlds and covers all three coasts — East, West and the Gulf — with its new location in Fountain. Chef Chantal Lucas debuts the newest extension of her growing company with a classy, urban seafood restaurant that captures robust Cajun flavors and serves celiac-approved, seaside-inspired cuisine.
“We’re giving you a Florida-California coastal feel,” says Lucas, Luchals founder and president. “As we like to call it, Cali-Florida, providing you with gluten-free seafood options.”
Fried fish fans can still find their favorites at Luchals inside COATI, downtown’s eclectic food hall, but the new stand-alone space makes way for expanded offerings with a full bar, weekend brunch and an amplified menu that includes seafood boils, oysters, calamari, trout, grouper and more.
“We source from local farmers and sustainable seafood suppliers as well as finding the highest quality gluten-free batters that have been vetted and tested, to ensure we are getting the right products for our guests,” Lucas says.
Inspired by her Southern Texas background and the influential women in her family, Lucas fondly remembers the routine of preparing fresh food daily, looking on as her mother would hand snap green beans and her aunt made salmon croquettes from scratch.
“We had a Cajun aspect to items that gave them more spice and more flavor,” says Lucas. “Seeing this as a kid and loving watching these ladies in the kitchen made me want to hop in and be a part of putting smiles on people’s faces.”
Although she cites a longtime appreciation for meal prep and cooking, hospitality was just one road that Lucas ventured down. After doing many jobs in everything from security to banking, sheriff recruitment and production, food services called out to Lucas more than any other career field. Joining the U.S. Army proved to be the path that allowed Lucas the opportunity to hone her skills and develop her passion. The Army also offered her a chance to compete in American Culinary Federation competitions before gaining a culinary degree from Auguste Escoffier School in Boulder, Colorado.
“We support our active duty soldiers and veterans as we are retired veterans ourselves,” Lucas says. “Our dynamic is building good food culture in the Springs and all over the world.”
Whether it’s through military or hospitality service, a cornerstone of Lucas’s success is giving back, and she graciously recounts how the Fountain community supported her delectable dreams from the word go. She shares how readily this vicinity of Colorado Springs showed up when she was just starting out with her food truck in 2018. Today, Luchals upward trajectory brings it full circle in Fountain, setting up shop in the same area where her own kids graduated from high school and back to where it all began.
“We chose Fountain because it is truly an underserved area with so much potential,” Lucas says. “We made big waves in the area and when we polled for our next location, Fountain came through like a flood. We love this part of the city.”
In addition to paying homage to this growing part of town, Lucas urges the importance of what this restaurant means to her entire family, and she says she has layered a range of offerings for every patron who walks through the doors.
“We hope that guests will be able to sit back and relax as they listen to vibrant music, enjoy libations and eat phenomenal food,” says Lucas. “We want our guests to celebrate their accomplishments, weddings, births and lives in our home that the community helped build.”
The new Fountain location is under the general management of Olivia Gerin with Chantal Lucas acting as the corporate chef for all Luchal’s locations. She encourages feedback, be it good or bad, and she says she wants to share wholesome, gluten-free options with not just the loyal patrons of Fountain, but with the entire celiac population of Colorado Springs and beyond.
“Our company has a community-forward aspect because without them there would be no Luchal’s,” Lucas says. “We are building a legacy for our children (Isaiah, Jordan, Jalyn, Travares Jr. and Jada), and we hope to empower those that are cultivating their own creations to move forward and keep going. My husband and I are just little specks in the world, hailing from St. Petersburg, Florida, and South Central Los Angeles. Coming from our backgrounds and being first-generation entrepreneurs, we are not supposed to be here statistically, but through God’s grace we have made it, and we are hoping for more.”
Luchals held its grand opening in Fountain on April 26, 2024. Reservations are recommended. Visit eatluchals.com to learn more.
Find more favorite spots to eat out in our 25 Buzzworthy New Restaurants of 2023.
