Thanks Smiling Joe. My husband and I will be spending the last week of April in Seagrove and it's always good to know where a new restaurant is.
Mourning Luna del Mar...
- Thread starter katie blue
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Here's the Sun article. Sounds like the ending was not so sweet.
The staff at Luna del Mar, a popular Tex-Mex restaurant on County Road 30A, dished out the last of the enchiladas Friday night in a farewell to the community.
It was the end of a nearly two-year run, for the restaurant that offered a change from the usual seafood fare that was popular with both locals and tourists.
When asked why it didn?t work here, local restaurateur and investor George Hartley said, "It did. Luna was successful. The company that maintained the restaurant, Night Moon Inc. never, quite frankly, paid the rent.
"The other two guys, Scott Bumpas and Worth Williams, finally took off their restaurant investor hats and put on their landlord hats and kicked them out," Hartley said.
However, Lisa Galvan, owner of Night Moon, the managing company of Luna del Mar, said Tuesday as she drove back to Dallas in a convoy of six cars filled with her displaced workers, the investors were not as supportive as she had hoped.
And though Hartley said he lost money, Galvan cited her own contributions to complete the renovations before Luna del Mar opened, "and still we missed the high season that first year.
"Though we owed everybody and struggled to pay our bills, people loved the restaurant and we got through the first season," she said.
The next year was better.
"By the time the restaurant closed (for the season) on Dec. 22, 2004, we had paid off our debt and stayed current with our bills, but I couldn?t pay the rent," she said.
"This has been the weirdest thing. These are my partners and this is what they do to me?" she said of the notice she received 11 days after she reopened in 2005.
"They wanted the rent," Galvan said.
When she did not pay up, she got notification on March 31 that she had to be out by Saturday.
"This was the first year we had been debt free and were ready to go, then they pulled the rug out from under me," Galvan said.
"I wish we had known before we opened for another season that this was what they planned to do," she said.
The investors have already found a new tenant ? well known local businessmen Charles Morgan and Carey Shahid ? will open the Old Florida Fish House on May 10, said Bumpas.
"We had to make a business decision and we wanted locals to run it," he continued.
The staff at Luna del Mar, a popular Tex-Mex restaurant on County Road 30A, dished out the last of the enchiladas Friday night in a farewell to the community.
It was the end of a nearly two-year run, for the restaurant that offered a change from the usual seafood fare that was popular with both locals and tourists.
When asked why it didn?t work here, local restaurateur and investor George Hartley said, "It did. Luna was successful. The company that maintained the restaurant, Night Moon Inc. never, quite frankly, paid the rent.
"The other two guys, Scott Bumpas and Worth Williams, finally took off their restaurant investor hats and put on their landlord hats and kicked them out," Hartley said.
However, Lisa Galvan, owner of Night Moon, the managing company of Luna del Mar, said Tuesday as she drove back to Dallas in a convoy of six cars filled with her displaced workers, the investors were not as supportive as she had hoped.
And though Hartley said he lost money, Galvan cited her own contributions to complete the renovations before Luna del Mar opened, "and still we missed the high season that first year.
"Though we owed everybody and struggled to pay our bills, people loved the restaurant and we got through the first season," she said.
The next year was better.
"By the time the restaurant closed (for the season) on Dec. 22, 2004, we had paid off our debt and stayed current with our bills, but I couldn?t pay the rent," she said.
"This has been the weirdest thing. These are my partners and this is what they do to me?" she said of the notice she received 11 days after she reopened in 2005.
"They wanted the rent," Galvan said.
When she did not pay up, she got notification on March 31 that she had to be out by Saturday.
"This was the first year we had been debt free and were ready to go, then they pulled the rug out from under me," Galvan said.
"I wish we had known before we opened for another season that this was what they planned to do," she said.
The investors have already found a new tenant ? well known local businessmen Charles Morgan and Carey Shahid ? will open the Old Florida Fish House on May 10, said Bumpas.
"We had to make a business decision and we wanted locals to run it," he continued.
What? I thought rent was a bill. Maybe she needs a new accountant.
It sounds like she expected her "investors" who owned the building to give her a break and not have to pay the rent. :roll:
It sounds like the investors got a better idea on how to mkae money at that location.
It sounds like the investors got a better idea on how to mkae money at that location.
My understanding from a neighbor of mine who is an investor in the Dallas area restaurants, is the owner of the land and building was asking Luna to invest another 100k in the building, even after Luna had already invested quite a bit in bringing the structure up to code. This was not a case of landlord/tenant or investor/business owner. It was a little mix of both and led to the demise. Contrary to above, Luna is in great financial shape - just a bad business relationship.