Mourning Luna del Mar...

[katie blue]

Just read in the Walton Sun Online that we're losing one of our favorite restaurants...ANYWHERE-- Luna del Mar. Not sure why, it said they just couldnt make a go of it. They had the best tortilla soup and green salsa i've ever had... and i'm a texas girl. what i'd give for those recipes!! The consolation is that a good seafood place will be going in in its place, but I will always miss Luna.

 

[landlord]

Darn it... disappointed to hear the news. We enjoyed Luna as well. It was a nice change of pace at the beach.

 

[Smiling JOe]

I guess that more of you will be frequenting CoCo's. I've said for a while now, that we are losing restaurants left and right, and within the next 5 years, we will have to drive to Freeport to eat out.

 

[Paula]

The restaurant had a fantastic location. however, there was a lot of construction going on around it for several months and that may have taken business away (since the location, as well as the food, was a big part of it's strength).

I think a big part of the way to keep businesses in business along 30A is to get more people to visit the area all year round which means enticing snowbirds to the area. I think the area will be busy when all of us boomers retire and move to the area or spend more time visiting the area, but that's about a decade away so creative ways to get people in the area Sept - March (esp. Nov - end of Feb) will be important to our businesses.

I do my part by eating out regularly when I'm there, going to my old favorites and trying at least 1-2 new places each time.

 

[RiverOtter]

and within the next 5 years, we will have to drive to Freeport to eat out.

What's good in Freeport?

 

[Smiling JOe]

What's good in Freeport?

At the moment, Freeport does not have much to offer. The Corner Cafe has good breakfast (except pancakes), great burgers for lunch, fried shrimp for dinner. Did I mention it is cheap -- I guess they are cutting cost by not upgrading the decor. Oh, you may get some stares from the locals -- some of them don't take kindly to strangers.

On another note, one of the tough parts about keeping restaurants in SoWal is the cost to lease space (around $30/sf), but as important, is the lack of staff to operate the place. With those two negatives, and a new restaurant failure rate of 90% in the first year, who wants to spend $250,000 to get two full time jobs that may or may not pay anything after all is said and done? Most people would rather sink that $250,000 into buying investment land, and they would probably be better off, and have plenty of free time to enjoy life.

 

[Camp Creek Kid]

I was told that Luna del Mar closed because the company was having financial problems with its Dallas restaurant which made it difficult for them to cover their mortgage here. It appears that the problem was with the company itself, not necessarily the Eastern Lake location.

Luna del Mar had good food--except for the time I got food poisoning from their shredded beef tacos. They were always so understaffed that on a busy night we had to wait an hour, after being seated, just to get our order taken. I wasn't too impressed with the place.

 

[chrisv]

I guess that more of you will be frequenting CoCo's. I've said for a while now, that we are losing restaurants left and right, and within the next 5 years, we will have to drive to Freeport to eat out.

Hey, that's progress! We have to drive over the bridge to eat out now!

 

[katie blue]

... They were always so understaffed that on a busy night we had to wait an hour, after being seated, just to get our order taken. I wasn't too impressed with the place.

Interesting..never had that experience, and we ate there at least a dozen times. I was always rather impressed with the professionalism myself. But, most importantly, although some of their fare was just average, certain specialty dishes were *over the top* delicious!

I hear that the new place will be called Old Florida seafood or something like that, and will be similar to Harbor Docks, which rumor has is quite good. wonder if they'll have bands playing there as well...

 

[STL Don]

I was told that Luna del Mar closed because the company was having financial problems with its Dallas restaurant which made it difficult for them to cover their mortgage here. It appears that the problem was with the company itself, not necessarily the Eastern Lake location.

Luna del Mar had good food--except for the time I got food poisoning from their shredded beef tacos. They were always so understaffed that on a busy night we had to wait an hour, after being seated, just to get our order taken. I wasn't too impressed with the place.

Two weeks ago I had the same experience with poor service and running out of the types of food that we had ordered. Nevertheless, it is sad to see the only "close" Texmex place disappear.