In a town the size of Clinton, any new restaurant is bound to draw a crowd. The Lucky Dog, which opened its doors in December 2024 has certainly spurred excitement, especially from the fleet of people who migrate to Utica Coffee every weekend for their weekly bagel and coffee. The small bistro offers a breakfast from 8-11 a.m. and a lunch menu opens up thereafter. The space is small but cozy, with tables that can accommodate up to twenty people. The upper level, once you make it up a precariously narrow and winding staircase, boasts a small dimly lit nook that feels comfortable when half-full but can get bit packed cramped when all the lower level tables fill up. Green walls are covered in photos of well-coiffed, AI-generated images of dogs. The bistro offers counter-service style dining, where customers order, find a seat and await the call of their name. Both the breakfast and lunch menus are fairly expansive and offer a wide selection of artisan sandwiches, open-faced bagels and good quality breads.
Alyssa Williams, the owner of The Lucky Dog, is also the owner of City Cafe in Whitesboro, a restaurant that makes a special effort to cater to an array of dietary restrictions. With this new venture, she has shifted her focus to an elevated yet casual breakfast and lunch menu, a great dining option on the weekend for college students on the hunt for alternatives to a Commons breakfast. Given that they are only just beginning their second month of operations, there are likely to be changes as they settle into the space and the menu.
For breakfast, the menu revolves around bagels, touted as ‘large and fresh NYC style.’ The thick bagels may be more reminiscent of NYC style bagels than others in the area, but Lucky Dog does itself a disservice by promising the quality of an NYC bagel and falling short of it with a slightly dry and doughy bagel. The open-faced bagels are a great brunch option, loaded with toppings like pesto, tomatoes, ham or lox. The Midtown, with arugula, hot honey, chive cream cheese and prosciutto, was a filling and well-balanced choice. However, the meat inside was more akin to thinly-sliced ham, not prosciutto. While the menu shouldn’t call something prosciutto that is so visibly not-as-advertised, the first few bites of the bagel sandwich were promising, with fluffy, freshly-made eggs and a generous amount of chives. But the sandwich quickly became dry, with the bready bagel overwhelming the paltry ratio of egg and bacon. The real appeal of the place is not its food, but the location and the seating. Overall, I won’t be running back for breakfast or suggesting it to someone over other local options.
When it comes to lunch, Lucky Dog falls flat of expectations. At first glance, the menu seems promising, with sandwiches, salads and soups that all sound appealing. However, at the price point of $14-$16 per sandwich before tax and tip, the sandwiches felt lacking a balance and freshness that would have made the price worth it. The ham and fig sandwich is misleadingly named. The sandwich certainly comes stacked with a fresh-tasting, thinly sliced ham, but the fig is nowhere to be found. Of the other five ingredients, the only one that I could taste was the dijon mustard, which overwhelmed every other flavor and brought a tear to my eyes. The arugula, red onion and fig jam listed in the description would have lent some bitterness, sweetness and crunch to a sandwich that lacked nuance. The prosciutto and brie sandwich was another let-down. The
description sounded amazing, with prosciutto, brie, arugula, red onions, olive tapenade and a fig balsamic vinaigrette. The sandwich was again far cry from the lofty description, with a few leaves of arugula, a dab of the olive tapenade, the same ham like the bagel sandwich and no balsamic to be tasted. With most of the bagel and sandwich options, the first few bites are decent, but they quickly become flat-tasting, with not enough acidity, freshness or flavor, especially at such a high price-point.
Overall, the Lucky Dog is a smart addition to Clinton, as it will surely be packed every weekend with people looking for a cute place to sit down with a bagel or sandwich. However, if this new bistro was located anywhere other than Clinton, people would not go out of their way to visit. For the masses of Hamilton students looking for food options close-by, the Lucky Dog has real appeal, with an intriguing menu, a cozy space and a convenient location. However, the food may not live up to how it sounds on the menu, and after trying both breakfast and lunch, I don’t see myself going back to the Lucky Dog any time soon. The food just doesn’t justify the price, and both times I left with a vague feeling of unrealized potential.
