Very excited for the soft opening of Lucille, a new restaurant from the same crew that brought us Merchant. They did a great job renovating this space for an industrial chic look. The main floor is dominated by a bar and communal tables. The walls and ceiling are brick / cement so it does start to get loud as the place fills up. The second floor has high exposed ceilings with large booths and tables surrounding a balcony that opens up to downstairs. The final touch is an additional bar area in the basement where they offer lounge seating in a neat space which used to be a bank safe, complete with the former vault door intact.
The staff was spot on, who would know it was day #1. Our only beef was the beers were coming out with a bit too much foam so then you weren't really ending up with a full beer. Every drop counts, agh! They were offering a limited menu of appetizers and pizzas during the soft opening, the full menu will be available likely next week. Hours are also limited to dinner this weekend but their regular expanded (including lunch) hours will likely start next week. All the food we tried was good. The garden goddess salad was tossed with dressing & available in a small ($6) or large ($11) size. The small size was perfect for one person. Cheese curds were tasty and served with marinara sauce. The pizzas we tried were tasty (baby spinach, olive, onion pizza has a spicy kick!), crispy thin and nicely topped. A great first experience, I'm excited to return to try the steel pan (deep dish) pizzas once they are offering the full menu.