Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

The team behind Mama Lu’s is bringing a new Asian-inspired concept to Traverse City while keeping Mama Lu’s alive

Front Street’s 100 block is where tourists come for adorable gifts, cherries, and TC merch. It’s also where Traverse City’s foodies come for a fix of Mama Lu’s, a popular taco shop known and beloved for its artisanal tacos, Mexican sides, and margaritas worthy of award.

After nearly a decade downtown, Executive Chef John Larson and Adrienne Brunette had planned to close the taco shop and turn it into The Happy Cat, a Cantonese-inspired restaurant built around dim sum, giant bowls of noodles, and a laid-back yet elevated dining experience. But as they prepared to say goodbye, they realized Mama Lu’s wasn’t quite ready to leave.

The Mama Lu’s Story

Larson and Brunette opened Mama Lu’s in 2016 as an ode to Larson’s great-grandmother, Mama Lu, in El Paso, Texas. Larson spent his youth being immersed in Mexican comfort food, like hand-pressed tortillas, freshly cut cilantro and white onion, and tear-inducing chilis charred on the grill. Mama Lu’s home cooking stuck with Larson as he pursued culinary school at the French Culinary Institute in New York City.

After years in the hospitality industry, the couple bet on Traverse City’s growing food scene to embrace the flavors from the border. And it did.

For almost a decade, Larson and Brunette’s team weathered the town’s seasons. Packed tables and non-stop rushes challenged them during the height of summer. In winter, they navigated snowstorms and road closures and quickly gained a local following. Then there was COVID.

As time went on, the little bar and taco shop not only persevered but thrived. Their business dream started with Mama Lu’s and eventually led to The Flying Noodle in 2020 and The Burrow TC in 2022. Instead of recreating the authentic flavors they experienced on their travels, they wanted their team to have fun with the concepts.

“At The Flying Noodle, for instance, we’re not trying to be Italy. You’re not going to go to Italy and get that same dish, just like you’re not going to go to Mexico and get Mama Lu’s,” Brunette says. What they wanted to make was something memorable, with dishes made with real ingredients by people who are culinary trained and focused on the craft.

Building the Happy Cat Menu

But after almost a decade, Larson and Brunette decided it was time to move on. “We wanted to give our team an opportunity, and so we said, ‘Great, we’ll revamp Mama Lu’s and give everyone this new, exciting thing,’” Brunette says. So the team set the course to transform a popular taco shop into an Asian noodle bistro.

The concept came to Larson and Brunette much as it did for their other ventures. “We travel a lot as a family, and even before John and I had kids, we always loved to travel, and obviously we have a passion for food,” Brunette says. “And one of our goals when we moved back to northern Michigan was to bring food that we felt the area was missing.”

Inspired by their trips to East Asia and experiences at trend-setting restaurants around the world, they envisioned their next venture to be a Cantonese-inspired restaurant in downtown Traverse City, with a menu featuring dim sum, crispy spring rolls, crab rangoons, green beans with spicy chili crisp, and pot stickers. Steamed buns and housemade noodles will be prepared in a brand-new pasta machine converted to deliver nonstop noodles on the fly; plus there’s a plan to end each meal with the restaurant’s playful version of a fortune cookie.

For the drinks program, a curated sake selection, Asian beers, and cocktails inspired by the flavors of the region like fresh cut lychee, lemongrass, yuzu, and anise.

Inside, expect a cozy and colorful vibe. “Our inspiration is like the street markets of Hong Kong,” says Brunette. “So just big bold flavors and big bold colors inside.”

For the name and brand icon, Larson created something both recognizable and inviting. “We all know the little lucky cat that you see in all the windows around East Asia,” Brunette says, referring to the beckoning cat or maneki-neko of Japanese origin, popularized in Chinatown storefronts around the world.

One Door Almost Closes…But Stays Open

Larson and Brunette planned for Mama Lu’s last day on May 5, Cinco de Mayo, before spending a week converting it into The Happy Cat. But just before going through with it, Brunette suffered a medical emergency and had to put their plans on hold.

As she recovered, Brunette says something unexpected happened. “We had people coming in saying, ‘Oh my gosh, we had to get our fix, and come back one last time before you closed,’” she says.

The public let them know, in forums and chats, that they didn’t approve of their planned glow-up for their restaurant. Mama Lu’s had to stay. “When we stepped back, we just realized what a missed opportunity it would be not to try to do both—so we pivoted.”

The team knew the public wanted both restaurants to exist, and they did, too. For months, through all the FOMO and public eulogies for Mama Lu’s, they had to keep their plans a secret until they found the right space for The Happy Cat.

“It was definitely busy for us,” Brunette says. “I’m just not a deceitful person, and it was killing me to not be able to tell people, ‘you know, don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere.’”

When Amanda and Josh Thomas of Identity Brewing heard Larson and Brunette’s restaurant plans, they decided to sell the space and make plans for a future endeavor in town. Brunette says by late summer, it was time to let the cat out of the bag.

The team at The Happy Cat will be converting the space throughout the month of October. Brunette says The Happy Cat can sit up to 50 people inside and 40 outside on a seasonal patio.

“Our goal is to open, hopefully, between Thanksgiving and the first of December,” Brunette says. “However, we’ll see when we start getting in there—you never know what you’ll find with a remodel of an old building in Traverse City.”

Stay up to date on Happy Cat’s opening day at happycattc.com or instagram.com/happycattc.

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