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Executive Orders LUCKY STREET CHEFS BRING A FRESH TWIST TO TRADITIONAL THAI CUISINE. BY MADELINE KOPIECKI PHOTOS BY CHRIS EMEOTT
Felix Navas and Victor Phommachanh serve up their style.
Crazy Soup
After 16 prosperous years in the Mall of America’s (MOA) restaurant scene, Tiger Sushi was due for a change. “Starting about 2016, we saw the shopping traffic at MOA begin to drop dramatically,” says Lisa Edevold, owner of Tiger Sushi and now Lucky Street. It became clear the restaurant needed to make a move, and, luckily, it landed in Plymouth. Edevold and her team took the new start as an opportunity to reinvent the restaurant. “We noticed that there were no Thai restaurants in the area,” she says. Since the Tiger Sushi chefs were as gifted in Thai cooking as they were in sushi, the team decided to switch things up—but not everything needed changing. MEET THE EXECUTIVE CHEFS
At age 20, Felix Navas left his home in Guatemala to join his brothers in the United States. Navas landed a position as a line cook at Edina’s Kozy’s Steak and Seafood and knew he’d found his calling. When a regular customer recommended he visit Tiger Sushi for a roll, Navas took the advice one step further and applied for a job at the restaurant. His efficiency as a prep cook caught the attention of “Tiger” Katayama. When Katayama retired in 2014, it was Navas who took over as manager of the kitchen and sushi bar, which is the position Navas holds at Lucky Street. Vixaysak “Victor” Phommachanh fled Laos when he was 18. After spending two years in a refugee camp in Thailand, Phommachanh came to the United States and began working as a dishwasher to support his family. His work ethic and culinary flair soon caught the attention
30 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2021
