Sit. Stay. Enjoy. Lucky Lab Tavern is unleashed in Royersford
ROYERSFORD — Bryan and Stacey Hebert, the proprietors of the newly opened Lucky Lab Tavern at 312. Lewis Road, are hoping everyone in the greater Pottstown-royersford area will stop by and “Sit. Stay. Enjoy!”
The Heberts, who married in 2005, met 12 years ago when they were working at Copeland’s of New Orleans. The couple decided to move from Louisiana to the Pottstown area, where Stacey grew up, and they both were hired for positions at Sly Fox Brewhouse and Eatery in Phoenixville. When Sly Fox opened its Royersford restaurant in 2003, Stacey became the new location’s general manager and Bryan took on an accounting role.
In January 2011, the owners of Sly Fox Brewing Co. were contemplating moving their Royersford brewery to a larger space in Pottstown, and approached the Heberts about purchasing the restaurant. The couple, at first, scoffed at the idea but soon found themselves unable to stop thinking about the possibility of having their own business.
I to realize our dream,” Bryan Hebert said. “It really seemed out of reach, then all of a sudden it started to feel like we could do this ... so, everything fell in line.”
When it came time to choose a name for the restaurant, the Heberts thought about one of their four Labrador retrievers, Chancey, who has struggled with severe health problems and has had four major surgeries. Despite the odds against her, Chancey continues to survive and, as the story on the Lucky Lab website (www. luckylabtavern.com) attests, this “original Lucky Lab” became the restaurant’s namesake.
“We’re not quitters. We don’t give up. We’re going to see things through no matter what, so as business owners, we kind of take that idea and follow through with our business and any decisions we make. That’s the idea with the Lucky Lab and how that came about,” Bryan Hebert said.
The 42 staff members at the Lucky Lab Tavern are nearly all Sly Fox alumni. The restaurant seats 250 and there is a banquet room that can hold around 50. Plans are in the works to expand the banquet facilities to include an additional room that will accommodate upwards of 250.
The restaurant includes room to grow. In the back, there is 5,500 square feet of space that previously housed the Sly Fox brewery. Now that the brewing equipment has been moved out, three phases of construction are slated to begin so that eventually the room will house a large banquet facility with additional kitchen space and wedding party rooms.
The space is expected to be set up by October, in time to host large Christmas parties. The Heberts stress that their new facility will have all of the panache without the high price tag.
“We want to be a step down from a country club and a step up from a firehouse, right in the middle to cater to everybody,” said Bryan Hebert. “But still affordable,” added Stacey Hebert.
In order to set the Lucky Lab Tavern apart from other local establishments, the Heberts focused on creating an interesting and diverse menu while also offering a wide variety of craft beers. Menu items include bangers and mash, Cajun catfish, crawfish étouffée, and Louisiana po-boy sandwiches.
For the less adventurous there are steaks, salads, and burgers. For the health conscious, the menu also denotes which items are healthy and which are vegetarian.
“Our food is different,” said Stacey Hebert. “We have Cajun food, Southern food, spicy food, and then we also have pub food, like burgers and appetizers. Everything is homemade.”
Beer buffs will appreciate the extensive selection of brews, which currently includes 24 beers on tap and more than 50 in bottles. The Heberts actively seek out the best micro-brews and have even set up an evaluation system on their website to allow patrons to rate each beer they sample. According to this online rating system (which allows drinkers to give beers a rating from one to five paws), a few of the more popular and highly rated drafts include Allagash White, Bells Two Hearted, and Rogue Dead Guy Ale. The website also includes descriptions of each beer the tavern sells.
The Heberts are constantly on the lookout for new brands of beer to carry. Lucky Lab also has several coolers filled with six-packs available for purchase.
“We’re expanding our retail selection as fast as we can,” said Bryan Hebert. “We have the two coolers here for retail, and we’re adding a third. We’re ever-changing, increasing our bottle selection.”
The Heberts said business has been good since Lucky Lab Tavern opened on Oct. 13, 2011. Although parking is somewhat limited in front of the restaurant, there is ample parking available behind the building.
The Heberts, who became parents 17 months ago with son Zachary, have designed the Lucky Lab Tavern to be, according to Bryan, “a fun, family-friendly, comfortable environment.” There is a children’s menu, as well as a game room equipped with pool tables and video games. Every Monday is Kid’s Night, where children are treated to 99-cent meals and make-your-own sundaes.
Lucky Lab Tavern also has many events and activities, all of which are listed on the website. Each weekend the business features live entertainment, and happy hour runs Monday to Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. For dog lovers, there also is a “Yappy Hour” on the third Thursday of each month with an extended happy hour on the patio that is “BYOD” or “bring your own dog.”
“We don’t want to be a cookie-cutter business,” Bryan Hebert said. “We want to cater to what the community feels is important. We want to be a big part of the community and to be that neighborhood place. Ultimately, we just want people to know that we’re a fun, friendly place.”
Lucky Lab Tavern is open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday to Wednesday and from 11:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. Thursday to Saturday. For more information, call 610-9488088 or visit www.luckylabtavern.com.