We recently connected with Chantal Lucas and have shared our conversation below.
Chantal , appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
I feel it takes a lot of discipline and hard work. I think the biggest misconception about entrepreneurship and success as a whole is that it will happen over night or quickly.
Being an over night success comes ever so often and the truth behind it is that you can’t copy your way to success either everyone is traveling on a journey and your journey is not theirs.
Sit back roll your sleeves up and prepare to sweat its much better when you take the stairs instead of the elevator.
Though it is easier said than done I feel that if you have a true calling for what ever it is your doing and that doesn’t just mean starting your own business this also goes for careerist, the time it takes to reach your goal will not matter but it will feel as if it went faster than you had imaged even if it takes 10 years. You truly must be willing to see the process through.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Chantal Lucas I am the owner of Luchals located inside of Coati Uprise in the heart of Downtown Colorado Springs Colorado. I am originally from South Central Los Angeles born and raised in a single parent home. My mom did the very best she could with all of the tools she had. One thing that she truly made sure I had was a hot meal. My mother cooked from scratch and she introduced me to new restaurants once out of the week. This is where my love for food came from.
I have worked in Food Service since the age of 14. I got the opportunity to work at one of the local Mcdonalds in my neighborhood as my first job. I loved the feeling of talking and getting to know customers daily. There was nothing like customer service and my mother always taught me that no matter what you do you make sure that your customer service is superb. I insured that no matter the situation I would keep that in mind. I then started my journey in the Summer of 2010 where I made the decision to join the US Army. I joined the Army as a 92G which at the time was a Culinary Specialist. My job was to ensure that food in the Dining Facility were made fresh daily at the exact time every day. This meant 4am wake ups or earlier depending on the occasion. There were grueling times when we were in the field and it would be raining or snowing and we still had to prepare chow for all of the soldiers in our company at 0300. This didn’t deter me from wanting to be in culinary but it empowered me by trying to figure out how I could make it better. Luckily I had great Non Commissioned Officers that wanted to do more than the basics we would turn our old fashioned meals into master pieces and not only did it make our team happy it made the soldiers happy.
While on my journey I met my husband whom pushed me to think bigger bout what I wanted to do as cooking was a big part of who I was. He invested in my dream and I invested in myself and learned as much as I could from great chefs and competed in ACF Culinary Competitions to improve my skills even more.
It wasn’t until 2016 while being stationed at Fort Carson did we decide to make my dream become reality. We opened Luchals in 2016 and had the pleasure working with of the best promoters in the city to help with there food and beverage. While doing so word moved quickly and we had been asked if we provided single serving dishes and at the time I didn’t want to go that route. I loved catering and cooking for the masses but my husband ensued that I had a skill that could definetly take me places. I personally didn’t think I was ready to display my craft to a bigger audience but with grace and mercy I was able to push our products and services to corporations, military post, and many others.
To my surprise word got out even more and we were prompted to attain a food truck, Luchals officially opened to the masses in 2017.
Our goal was to introduce southern style food with a mix of Florida and California. I dabbled with the idea of just doing southern or cajun food and those were major shoes to fill. Though I have studied in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi to name a few I wanted to do more as I felt that I would create a box for myself and not truly be authentic with the skills that I have and could teach.
While working our Foodtruck I retired and attained my Associates degree at Auguste Escoffier School Of Culinary Arts this had to be the most painful time of my life (or so I thought) I would travel from Colorado Springs to Boulder Colorado
Monday-Friday 3am mornings and traffic that would stretch all the way to Castle Rock some days. Though it was hard it definitely kept me on my toes and further invested in my future for Luchals. I seen my company in a different light and I would do anything it took to keep my business running. After a couple of years operating our food truck we were approached with a idea to open up downtown inside of Coati Uprise, This was hard as we had built over 7,000 followers and our guest were accustomed to our food truck model. After tussling with the idea we agreed to open up down town and it has been a blessing ever since.
Our goal is to bring the joy of food and culture together. We want to teach our fellow industry members that food speaks all languages, and that we are a well versed company that can offer more items than what’s on our daily menu. We want to mentor and give back to the youth and chefs of tomorrow.
The food and beverage industry has definitely fallen flat over the last two years unfortunately and it is such a thankless job but when you truly love what you do you have to block out the negativity and get rid of the toxicity. I work with an awesome group of men and women who want to be successful not only in with our company or Culinary but in every aspect of their own personal life and this is what makes my career worth wild. I feel as if my calling is to leave the world better than I got it and I am doing so through food.
Our future plans are to open up our own brick and mortar as we want to create a vibe unlike any other we also want to open our school of culinary arts and job placement for juveniles and veterans while offering 2nd chance opportunities for those who want to thrive in the culinary field.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
The hardest part of my journey has. to have been during the covid19 pandemic. I believe that was a true test of my faith and my commitment to my company and associates. My family and I took a huge hit once covid took over the nation, closing our doors after only being open in a new location for 3 months was hard. We went from 100% capacity to 30% and if you’ve ever been to our location you’d know that it is a space for music, food, and libations. Having to cut hours and try to assure our associates that things were going to be ok had me crying and going through panic attacks every other night. This time truly took a toll on my health and not just physical health mental health. This not only affected me but it also affected my family and marriage. At times when I didn’t want to I had to dig deep and motivate myself to keep going, my husband took some of the reins and reassuring me that things would get better. I had a hard time believing this for myself but I knew that I could not let my team down as they work and dedicate so much time to Luchals. We pushed our marketing more we offered specials and changed products as covid caused shortage on many of our core selling items. We fought to the death to not miss rent and insure that our business still thrived. By the grace of God we not only got through but the community kept our screens lit with orders even when they couldn’t get a full experience. I am truly grateful and blessed to have been able to retain all of my associates without any furlows
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I believe that word of mouth truly helped us, We would cater events and the guest would let us know that someone told them about Luchals or they tasted our food at an event and wanted our services. Early on we didn’t have the money to run ads on Facebook or do any major marketing. We had to rely on our food speaking for itself, this kept me on hyperdrive to insure that we prepared our items at its best. This of course is not humanly possible as everything will not be perfect, there have been times that we have missed the mark but our goal is to make it better. After a couple of years of business we have had the blessing of being featured in Magazines and New Papers. Once we were able to afford ads we set budgets that would help aid in spreading the word even if it was only once a month.
Contact Info:
- Website: eatluchals.com
- Instagram: Eat_Luchals
- Facebook: Luchals
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luchal-lucas?original_referer=
- Yelp: Luchals
Image Credits
Ren Creativ Meegan Dobson Photography