Attention all food enthusiasts, aspiring chefs and fans of a good deal! There’s a culinary experience coming your way that you certainly won’t want to miss. I had the pleasure of sitting down with the young entrepreneur behind The Lucky Tortoise, Thom Lawson. Lawson, originally from Watford, was until recently living in Central London. He began working with a group called Caravan Coffee Roasters, an establishment specialising in all-day dining. His resume expanded further when he went to work for the Smoking Goat, a trendy Thai restaurant located in London.
Lawson ventured into consultancy work soon after – he even wrote a book for Eat Grub about eating insects. Over the past four years, he has concerned himself mainly with pop-up restaurants, of which Pestle, a Thai pop-up, seemed to be the most prominent.
Lawson’s pop-ups are formed under the umbrella of “To the English Fashion”, which he himself describes as the “brand of [him]”. Lawson explained that he has observed that in England and Ireland, there is little variation or exploration with Asian food restaurants. While burgers can vary dramatically from one establishment to another and innovation is at the core their competition, Asian restaurants, namely Chinese, display little in menu variation. This is something that I found to be remarkably true, as one can essentially walk into any Chinese restaurant in Dublin and order a spice bag with egg fried rice without even looking at the menu.
Lawson’s aim with The Lucky Tortoise is to choose one dish and explore many possible variations of it. This was also his aim with Pestle, his Thai startup. In fact, the name of Lawson’s brand is a nod to this. At its core, “To the English Fashion” is focused on the idea that English dishes, much like Irish dishes, are often appropriated from the foods and drinks of other nations, with tea being an obvious example. Importantly though, despite their foreign origins, these dishes are modified, adapted and ultimately integrated into our culture. With the Lucky Tortoise, Lawson does not claim that his menu is traditional, nor his dining experience authentic. Rather, his focus is having a particular take on an existing dish. He even attempts to localise the dishes with The Lucky Tortoise’s pork and red cabbage shumai – which are clearly an adaptation of the Chinese delicacy for western audiences.
During our discussion in the downstairs of Costa on Dawson Street, I posed the question to Lawson: “Why dumplings?”. He explained that in London, dim sum is extremely popular. So much so that you’re able to acquire some at 3am in Chinatown in Soho after a night out. This varied dramatically with what he saw in Ireland, where establishments specialising in dim sum are next to non-existent. Dim sum, for the uninitiated, involves bite-sized pieces of food, which predominantly consist of different styles of dumplings. The Lucky Tortoise aims to distinguish itself with a unique style of service. The atmosphere is casual, matching the staff’s dress code. All the food comes together, making for a banquet-style dining experience where people share. Lawson surmised that The Lucky Tortoise provides a service that resembled brunch restaurants more than it did a conventional restaurant.
What stood out to me most about The Lucky Tortoise – and the reason I will champion it as a must visit – is the phenomenal value for money. According to Lawson you could order the entire dim sum menu for a total of €20. He emphasised that he’d found that Dublin was an expensive place to eat out but more importantly, in comparison to London, it was not great value for money. The food simply was not worth the price charged and this is a problem he sought to resolve with The Lucky Tortoise.
Currently Lawson’s focus is on finding a permanent venue for the once temporary pop-up. He explained that he has a five-year plan, which entails opening up multiple premises in Dublin and back home in the UK. Once established however, Lawson’s focus will be on introducing student deals, offering jobs to students and allowing upcoming cooks to avail of his equipment. Personally, I look forward to trying The Lucky Tortoise when it reopens. At the affordable prices outlined above, I’m sure that many other students will be eager too.
