The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 109, No. 5 - January 30, 2020
Inside
This Issue
Calendar of Events.............2
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................7
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Legals.................................2,7
Letters...................................2
Neighborhood Therapist.....3
Police Reports.....................2
Real Estate.................... 5,6,8
Sports Shorts.......................3
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Mostly
Sunny
75˚/55˚
Saturday
Sunny
74˚/55˚
Sunday
Mostly
Sunny
67˚/50˚
Troops Take Training Hike
The scouts get ready to start out from Chantry Flats. Troop 762 (Boy Scout Troop) and their sister troop 410 went on a training hike to Camp Hoegee this past weekend. More photos on page 2.
After 29 Years, El Segundo’s
Still Feeling Lucky
By Chase Maser
Since the early 1990s, Lucky’s has been
a staple of El Segundo, supplying the community
with fresh baked pastries, donuts,
coffee and lottery tickets non-stop.
The shop’s owner, Seng Fou, opened the
donut shop with her husband, Than Chau,
with one goal in mind—to run a successful
family business with the skills passed down
to her from years of experience.
“When we were looking for a donut shop
to open, we just drove around and stumbled
on El Segundo. We saw the area, we loved
it, and so we bought it.” says Fou.
From behind the counter, her daughter,
Brenda Chau, chimes in and adds some
context to her mom’s statement.
“We actually live in Long Beach, and at
the time, my parents lived in Orange County
when they opened the business.”
Brenda, who is currently a student at Cal
State Long Beach, studying Criminal Justice,
shares that “it was already a donut shop when
[they] took over.”
“There used to be a gas station here a
long time ago, but they tore it out and built
a shopping center instead. The area has
changed a lot, especially the people, but
everyone is so nice—the changes keep us
busy,” Fou explains.
Staying busy is understatement.
According to Brenda, her mom works
seven days a week, baking twice a day with
her father and brother, Kevin Chau, working
the night shift.
“So my dad bakes at night time, and
my mom hired a person to bake here in
the early mornings before she comes in,”
says Brenda. “Our donuts are always fresh—
we bake them at around 8 AM. It’s the
best time to come—when the donuts are
still warm.”
But even after the morning crowd gets
their fix, Lucky’s gets a second wind from
local officers and travelers leaving and entering
the city.
“At night, all the customers are from the
airport,” Brenda chuckles. “And from what
I hear, the El Segundo police always stop
by. For some reason, they don’t come by in
the morning, but at night they always stop
in. It must be because our coffee is pretty
good, too.”
Along with delicious coffee from Farmers
Brothers mixed with a few different blends,
their top donut sellers are Glaze and Maple
Longs. Fou even claims that she prepares and
goes through more than “a hundred ham &
cheese croissants a day.”
“With a small business like this,” says Fou,
“you have to be here all the time. Especially
with food—you can’t trust other people to be
as dedicated, so it’s a big job that I handle,
but I love it. My husband and I have to be
here all the time.”
Funny enough, when Fou came to Los
Angeles, she met and married Than who
was already a baker. With her roots extending
from China, her parents fled the rise of
Communism only to wind up in Cambodia
during the reign of Pol Pot and the Khmer
Rouge. Luckily, Fou’s older brother moved
to California first in 1983 and set up his
own donut shop before she arrived five years
later. When she settled in, her brother gave
her a job. Who knew that she would one day
carry on that tradition with her own family?
See Lucky, page 4
In Loving Memory Of
KOBE BRYANT
1978 - 2020
Gianna Bryant • John Altobelli
Keri Altobelli • Alyssa Altobelli
Christina Mauser • Sarah Chester
Payton Chester • Ara Zobayan
Photo Courtesy of Staples Center.