{"id":479627,"date":"2026-10-28T19:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T19:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/479627\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T19:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T19:58:07","slug":"fun-loving-austin-bar-the-lucky-duck-swims-up-to-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/479627\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun-loving Austin bar The Lucky Duck swims up to Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fun-loving neighborhood bar from Austin is coming to Fort Worth: The Lucky Duck<\/a>, a small chain from a team of Austin bar veterans, is coming to the West 7th Street district, taking over a former warehouse at 2811 Bledsoe St., with an opening set for mid-November.<\/p>\n

It’ll be a two-story space with multiple experiences including a main bar, a hidden speakeasy, and a rooftop patio with views of downtown Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

Owners Michael Bajec, Bao Le, and Thomas Le founded the original Lucky Duck in East Austin in 2019 as an all-inclusive neighborhood hangout, named for the feeling of luck they felt after nabbing a prime address that had been<\/a> home to the popular Sputnik burger joint. They’ve since opened a second location in South Austin and a location in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

“Our mantra is to be comfortable and approachable for everyone,” Bajec says.<\/p>\n

That includes creating a welcoming, vibrant space with TVs, games, beer, cocktails, and lots of varied programming.<\/p>\n

“We keep a calendar of events like crawfish boils, free oyster nights, free BBQ pop-ups, salsa nights,” he says. “We try to always host fun events of all types \u2014 off-the-wall stuff you don’t see elsewhere. On any night we’ll have something special, to create a fun hangout where a lot of people can feel welcome.”<\/p>\n

Bajec, who has family in the DFW area, says they fell in love with Fort Worth. “It reminds me of Austin 20 years ago, when I first moved there, with a cool relaxed vibe,” he says.<\/p>\n

Lucky Duck will join a row of successful bars on Bledsoe Street that includes Koe Wetzel’s Riot Room<\/a>, Junk Punch<\/a>, and No Vacancy<\/a>. “We feel like we’ll fit in and the crowds will vibe well together,” Bajec says.<\/p>\n

The Fort Worth location has been in the works for nearly two years.<\/p>\n

“Permitting took 18 months and then construction took quite a while,” he says. “The space was a warehouse and parking, which we completely remodeled. We transformed it into a 12,000-square-foot space with two stories, a speakeasy, and a separate rooftop.”<\/p>\n

Decor-wise, the Fort Worth space follows their trademark scheme of colorful with a dose of whimsy.<\/p>\n

“The space is bright with pink walls and palm trees painted in the bathrooms \u2014 kind of an outdoor clubhouse vibe,” Bajec says. “”Downstairs has a lot of forest greens with our ‘duck’ theme, and neon pieces such as a duck in a cowboy hat. We’re going for fun, but not overbearing.”<\/p>\n

There’ll also be a “myriad of arcade games,” he says, including Skee-Ball, basketball games, and rubber duck-themed claw machines.<\/p>\n

They offer food at their other locations and will have it at Fort Worth as well, but only after they get open. Their cocktail selection might include a drink like their Espresso Martini or their Lavender Mule.<\/p>\n

“At our main bar, we’ll do cocktails that change seasonally, with fun twists and some frozens, but nothing unrecognizable,” he says. “However, we’ll have higher-end cocktails at our in-house speakeasy which will be in the back, hidden behind a secret entrance.”<\/p>\n

Each location has its own personality. South Austin spans two buildings with a large outdoor area that incorporates pickleball courts. Fort Worth’s special feature will be the rooftop patio.<\/p>\n

“Having a view of the downtown Fort Worth skyline is a highlight for us,” he says. “You can’t find that anywhere else in West 7th.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fun-loving neighborhood bar from Austin is coming to Fort Worth: The Lucky Duck, a small chain from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[132,4262,1634,116,118,117,3950,423,68398],"class_list":["post-479627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-austin","tag-bars","tag-cocktails","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-nightlife","tag-openings","tag-west-7th-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}