After 33 years, this Boise restaurant closed for a ‘sabbatical.’ It’s reopened — barely

After saying goodbye temporarily over the summer, a longtime Boise restaurant is saying hello again.

But only for lunch.

Lucky 13, which closed temporarily in July, recently reopened. The casual hangout is serving its well-known pizza, salads and sandwiches at 3662 S. Eckert Road.

The catch? It’s open only 10 hours per week. Lucky 13’s current business hours are 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

Does the restaurant plan to expand days and hours? Maybe start slinging slices on its ever-present paper plates with plastic forks until normal closing times in the evenings? Including weekends? And, if so, when?

“Happily, we did open up for lunches,” owner Liza Goul said in a text message. “Still very short-handed and recruiting more people to work soon.”

By next month, Goul expects to have a better idea about when hours might be expanded, she added.

Launched at Hyde Park in 1989, Lucky 13 moved to its present location, in Harris Ranch, in 2007.

“This is the first time I’ve ever taken a sabbatical in 33 years,” Goul confessed to the Idaho Statesman in July. “So it’s kind of weird.”

Half of the Lucky 13 summer staff was leaving the restaurant to return to school, Goul explained, and several remaining staff members had vacations planned during August.

It was challenging to find new hires, Goul said, so she decided to close Lucky 13 for a month or so.

Statesman staff contributed to this article.

This story was originally published September 23, 2022 at 4:00 AM.