By Daniel Perez-Crouse
Portland restaurant industry veterans Shan Wickham and Alan Maniscalco (owners of Rally Pizza in Vancouver, and founding team members of Ken’s Artisan Pizza) recently purchased the Lucky Horseshoe Lounge on SE Clinton St. and have updated it with an American-Italian-inspired menu and a new look. “It’s not hard to have a good time with what we are doing–making food, making beverages and interacting with customers.”
They happened upon the Lucky Horseshoe in 2022 while looking for a space to fulfill their next project. A broker showed them the Lucky Horseshoe and said they wouldn’t believe its “underutilized” kitchen; the previous owner used it more for storage than cooking. “We were initially looking for a spot to do pizza, but then we saw that place and were like, whatever, this spot is so great that we are going to have a cocktail bar with really good food in it.”
That food is inspired by Maniscalco’s Italian-American upbringing with offerings like meatball Parmesan and pork cutlet sandwiches, snacks in the form of rapini and deviled eggs with Calabrian chiles and pastas like Cacio e Pepe and macaroni and cheese. The Italian inspiration carries through the drink options and Wickham developed desserts like zeppole (Italian doughnut holes) glazed with honey and topped with rainbow sprinkles.
“This is stuff we make at home,” said Wickham, and that coming up with menu items was easy. “The main challenge was editing the menu. We had so many dishes.” Between the rotating specials featured at Rally Pizza and dishes they’d done at Ken’s Artisan Pizza, they had a good bank of recipes. “We are meticulous record keepers. Just from those places we’ve got 16 years worth of recipes.”
Wickham also said they were lucky to land a fantastic team right out of the gate. They inherited a couple of staff who worked at the lounge in the previous iteration, brought in someone they’ve worked with on and off for 20 years and their daughter Grace is the chef and kitchen manager.
“She’s always been in the kitchen with us. She used to come into Ken’s and do prep. Even when she was six years old she had a little step stool and helped,” said Wickham. Before they opened Rally Pizza, Grace worked at P’s and Q’s market as a dishwasher to get some experience in a different restaurant setting. When Rally opened, “she jumped right in and started doing prep, then pizza, then line. By 2020, she was our sous chef.”
Maniscalco said that a challenge with this project was “when you have a place that had very much a neighborhood feel and some regulars and you decide to keep a good portion of it the same, specifically the name, you have people who will come in with expectations.”
Wickham said they had regulars of the old iteration saying they were afraid of what would be done, but heard how good the food was and are appreciative that they didn’t change everything. “It’s still black and gold, we still have the horses and it still very much feels similar to what it was before. Except now it’s more furniture, more cocktails and more food.” Neighbors and patrons have been very welcoming thus far.
“We are glad to be doing something that is very personal for us,” said Maniscalco. “And to be in this very old-school Portland neighborhood. The block we are on hasn’t succumbed to new development and it’s been able to keep this very viable neighborhood space.”
While they loved their time with Rally Pizza in Vancouver, the pair said it’s nice to have a small, more manageable space in a larger city with all the advantages it provides. “It allows us to do what we enjoy doing and do what we want to any day that we want to do it,” said Maniscalco.
One of the amenities they highlighted is the abundance of farmer’s markets in Portland. “I have fried hand-pies on the menu right now because we were at the farmer’s market getting stuff for pizza Monday and I was like, oh look, blackberries and raspberries. I’m just going to get a pint of each and make a special that will run for a few days and it’s really nice to be able to do that.”
Speaking of specials, the menu will occasionally rotate and change with the seasons. “We wanted to keep the menu the same for a minute so people could get used to it,” said Maniscalco. However, they plan on changing up the sandwiches, appetizers (look forward to fried mozzarella) and more in the future.
Lucky Horseshoe Lounge
2524 SE Clinton St.
luckyhorseshoeportland.com
Photo: Lucky Horseshoe Lounge outside seating at night.
