New dim sum restaurant to open in Mandarin neighborhood

Alexandria Mansfield, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
·4 min read
Guorung Fan, the owner Lucky Cat Dim Sum, sets up a table of selections from the menu prepared for visitors on Aug. 3. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.
Guorung Fan, the owner Lucky Cat Dim Sum, sets up a table of selections from the menu prepared for visitors on Aug. 3. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.

Luck is a theme for the new dim sum restaurant opening in Mandarin.

Aside from the obvious in the name Lucky Cat Dim Sum, there are eights all over the place — a number associated with fortune, luck and success in China, said Guorung Fan, owner of the restaurant.

Fan, who also was born in the lucky year of ’88, said two eights together mean “super fortune,” and this was the idea behind the soft opening date on Aug. 8 — or, 8/8 — as well as smaller details around the dining area, such as the eight baskets hanging in groups along the wall.

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With a little luck and a lot of creativity, Fan has designed the restaurant at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28, to be a unique food offering that has elements of his Chinese American heritage and a welcoming feeling of home.

He said he enjoys serving small plates of food where friends or family can come in and “order different dishes and share because each dish comes with three to four pieces.”

Red bean-filled "piggie" buns are surrounded by other offerings at the new Lucky Cat Dim Sum restaurant in Mandarin. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.
Red bean-filled "piggie" buns are surrounded by other offerings at the new Lucky Cat Dim Sum restaurant in Mandarin. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.

He described the atmosphere as “an extension of [his] apartment,” even designing and building parts of the counter and other decorative wooden elements of the space.

“I wanted to establish it as a home and give it very much a home feel,” he said. “It’s very important to me.”

Chicken shumai topped with goji berries at Luck Cat Dim Sum on Aug. 3. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.
Chicken shumai topped with goji berries at Luck Cat Dim Sum on Aug. 3. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.

Fan’s love for cooking started at home, he said, when he started working for his uncle’s Cantonese restaurant, which also offered dim sum.

“Dim sum is a little bit of everything,” he said. “I like that it has a different kind of variety and touches base on a different style of cooking. A lot of technique goes into it.”

Lucky Cat curtains over the doorway of the kitchen separate it from the dining room Aug. 3 at Lucky Cat Dim Sum. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.
Lucky Cat curtains over the doorway of the kitchen separate it from the dining room Aug. 3 at Lucky Cat Dim Sum. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.

About a year ago, Fan said he moved back to New York City, where he lived for most of his adolescence, to further his culinary education.

“I thought maybe I’d go to NYC and find another restaurant to learn French or Italian,” he said. “I thought I was pretty good and applied to different places for a dim sum job in the meantime.”

During the hands-on portion of his interview, he was asked to make some dumplings and hop on the line, he said.

“About an hour later, [the interviewer] pulled me aside and said ‘I thought you’d been doing this for a year. It doesn’t look like you know what you’re doing,’” Fan said.

After seeing he had more to learn, he threw himself into perfecting his dim sum skills in Brooklyn.

“These guys are more down to earth,” he said. “They weren’t wearing chef coats or anything like that, unless they were taking a picture, and it felt really good. They were more chill about it, but they really wanted to do a good job.”

Shrimp shumai dumplings topped with English peas surrounded by other menu offerings Aug. 3 at Lucky Cat, a new dim sum restaurant in Mandarin. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.
Shrimp shumai dumplings topped with English peas surrounded by other menu offerings Aug. 3 at Lucky Cat, a new dim sum restaurant in Mandarin. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.

About six months ago, he came back to Jacksonville to work for his brother’s restaurant, Timwah Chinese Dim Sum, while looking for a space to open a place of his own.

Now that it’s finally ready to open, Fan said he’s excited to introduce his dim sum to Jacksonville.

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The tentative grand opening date for the restaurant is Aug. 28 — another day with an eight in it, and one that matches the unit number above the door of his restaurant.

Lucky Cat will be open 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Chicken fried rice Aug. 3 at Lucky Cat Dim Sum. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.
Chicken fried rice Aug. 3 at Lucky Cat Dim Sum. Lucky Cat Dim Sum is preparing for its Aug. 8 soft opening at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road, Unit 28.

The first few weeks of the soft opening will mean a more limited menu with the full expanded menu to come later in the month.

Some initial menu items include a taro Lucky Cat bun, red bean "piggie" bun, everything cheese bun, fried rice, stir fry noodles, different shumai dumplings and a variety of teas.

Fan said he hopes to introduce two monthly specials to the menu with a special barcode you can scan in the restaurant to see what they are. More information about those secret menu items will be posted on the restaurant's Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Lucky Cat Dim Sum to open this week on Old St. Augustine Road