Lucky Taco opens new location in Vernon

Lucky Taco started a decade ago as a food truck, pulling up to Hartford’s Bushnell Park to sling creative tacos and burritos with fillings like kung pao chicken, island jerk pork and cheesesteak with peppers and onions. In the years since, the brand has become a fixture on Manchester’s Main Street as a full-service cantina, with margaritas, cocktails and craft beer.

As the former Nature’s Grocer store closed in neighboring Vernon, owner Erin Emmons saw the opportunity to open a second location there.

After a 13-month COVID delay, Emmons was finally able to debut the Vernon restaurant in mid-November, offering a quick-service model in which customers order at the counter. There’s no full bar, but Vernon serves beer, margaritas on tap and canned cocktails.

With a few months under their belts now, “It’s going well. We’ve got our ducks in a row,” Emmons says, noting that she’s cross-training her staff to handle every task the restaurant may need done.

The food

Even with more limited cooking equipment than in Manchester, Vernon’s Lucky Taco maintains most of the flagship’s menu: tacos, burritos and burrito bowls, quesadillas and salads. Appetizers include chips with salsa, guac or queso, wings and jalapeño poppers. Nachos are not available, however, because there’s no oven on site.

Tacos feature classic preparations like pork carnitas and beef picadillo, along with international flavors like Thai chicken with red curry peanut sauce and Korean brisket with kimchi.

There’s a “bangin’ Buffalo chicken” option with blue cheese slaw, and a Nashville hot chicken taco with dill pickle slaw. Fish tacos, available lightly fried or blackened, are marinated in Black Hog Brewing’s Ginja Ninja IPA.

Vegetarian options include tacos with Cajun sweet potato and black beans and fajita-style portobello mushroom. Most of the taco fillings are also available as burritos or burrito bowls.

Emmons says the cheesesteak option for tacos, burritos and quesadillas is a huge seller, as is the kung pao chicken. Churros are available for dessert, and Emmons is considering adding ice cream.

Eat in or take out?

Takeout is now available, and there is indoor seating for about 55.

This article appears in the March issue of Connecticut Magazine.

Leeanne Griffin / Hearst Connecticut Media A spicy adobo-marinated shrimp taco with black beans, corn and crema verde, and a Newport chicken taco with guacamole, bacon and chipotle mayo.