Lucy's North China Cuisine staying open through repairs after truck crashes into building

Oct 09, 2023

FARGO — Serving up family recipes for more than a decade, this was a first for Lucy's North China Cuisine. On Saturday afternoon, May 6, a pickup truck came smashing through the large glass window at the restaurant.

According to police, its driver was going through a medical emergency.

The window is now boarded up, and all the ripped up tables and chairs sit stacked up behind a closed-off section inside. For the first time since the crash, we are hearing from staff at Lucy's. They wanted to keep their names out of the story for personal reasons, but did agree to speak through an interpreter.

"We're mostly startled that it happened because it happened so suddenly," they said. "We're happy that nobody was in the restaurant, nobody got hurt. It was just the tables and walls that got smashed. We do feel worried about if this will happen again, if we should have people sitting by the door, that kind of thing," they said.

The crash seriously slowed down their dinner rush, with the owner saying they lost about $2,000 compared to what they normally make. Restaurant staff are still working with repair companies to add up the damage costs and figure out when they can get the damage fixed. On top of replacing the furniture, staff are worried about how long it might take to replace the window frame.

ADVERTISEMENT

One thing they are thankful for is the large number of regular customers checking up on them after the crash.

"The customers don't have any reservations about the accident, but we did get a lot of phone calls," they said. "We're lucky to have customers like this. They called wondering if we were hurt. We told them nobody is hurt, just the windows and doors."

The owner said Lucy's stayed open since the crash and they hope to have their building fully fixed in two months.

WDAY News would like to thank Tao Peng for translating the interview.

ADVERTISEMENT