Foodies will soon have new downtown Durham restaurant to rally around: Luna – it’s where South American flavor meets the American South. There will be Peruvian rotisserie chicken, empanadas, braised brisket, and so much more.
We can’t help but fall in love with the flavors Luna’s Chef and Owner, Shawn Stokes, describes in our Q&A below. Pair that with his commitment to sustainability-produced food and we think Luna has the recipe for something Durhamites will dig.
BBC: What is the inspiration behind Luna?
LUNA: For me, Luna completes a circle that began at age 14 when I got my first job as a dishwasher at a fried seafood joint in FL and worked my way up to line cook. Fifteen years later, with a culinary degree and a half dozen restaurants under my belt, I decided to give cooking a break and carve out an alternative career path. I knew I could always go back to cooking, but figured if I didn’t take the leap then, I’d likely never do it. So, I went back to college, studied business, and became really interested in international microfinance. From there, I gravitated to international development, mostly working to improve agricultural production and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in developing countries. Frequently, this work led me to Central and South America, where I fell in love with the varied cuisines.
LUNA: For food, we’re importing a wood/charcoal-fired rotisserie oven from Peru. So, of course, we’ll be serving pollo a la brasa, known as “Peruvian chicken.” I’ve contracted a local metal artist, Jeff Goldman, to make some custom spits and baskets for the oven, which will allow us to braise brisket and roast whole fish in the rotisserie. We also have some small plates, like Luna fish and chips: cornmeal-crusted catfish with yucca frits, spicy pickled jicama, and chili-lime remoulade.
My partner, Sean Sullivan, is leading up the bar and has some amazing South American-inspired drinks up his sleeve. In addition to the staples, like a pisco sour, he has some less-traditional drinks like the Carretero—a mix of pisco, Fernet, and red vermouth. All fruit juices will be made fresh, in-house, so he plans several seasonal variations of the caipirinha. He and I both love bourbon, so we’ll have plenty of bourbon cocktails. We’re really excited about the South Star—Bulleit with lemon juice, maple syrup, and a little muddled jalapeno. Beers are where we stay local: the beer selection at Luna will be sourced entirely from NC—no exceptions. We have so many delicious beers in this state, there’s just no sense in looking elsewhere.
BBC: In what ways will you blend South American cuisine with Southern food?
LUNA: Without giving too much away, we have a side dish of pimento hominy ‘mac’ and cheese. In the South, we grind hominy into grits, but in the Andean regions of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, hominy is served whole. So, we take a classic southern dish and replace the elbow pasta with hominy. It’s fantastic. We also mix cuisines through technique: Southern cuisine has a lot of braised, pulled meats, so we’re preparing meats with healthy doses of South American herbs and spices, but serving them pulled.
BBC: What’s driving your use of sustainably-produced, local ingredients?
LUNA: For me, the sustainable comes first, then local. Our current means of food production—concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), monocropping, etc.—have a profound impact on the environment and on our health. The biggest threat is meat production; eighty percent of antibiotics consumed in America are given to healthy animals, increasing the threat of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. The environmental impact is also huge. Nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from CAFOs contributes to a 6,000 square mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, and depletes oyster beds in the Chesapeake Bay. Understanding that these issues are critical, we’ll be serving only grass-fed, antibiotic-free meat. In NC, I can source beef and pork, but there is no affordable source of chicken, so until there is, we’ll serve an antibiotic, free-range product from PA, called Freebird.
BBC: What will the restaurant’s atmosphere be like?
LUNA: First of all, it will be fun! We’re going for something accessible to many different types of people. I have two young children, so it’s important to me that families feel welcome. But it’s also a place entirely appropriate for a pre-theater meal, a long, casual dinner with friends, or a late night snack at the bar with cocktails. It’s a counter-service restaurant, but we’re trying a hybrid type of service. If you think you might want to hang out a while, order another round of drinks or bottle of wine, have dessert, etc. then cashiers will offer to have the check transferred to a cocktail server who can provide service to you at the table.
As for how the space looks, we’re having a lot of fun with it. The building was built in 1926. It has 16 ft. ceilings with exposed brick walls. Our metal sculptor, Jeff Goldman, is putting together a very cool functional installation for some of our lighting, and another local artist, Carlyn Wright-Eakes, is painting a couple indoor murals. We have an open kitchen, so everyone can check out what’s spinning on the rotisserie.
Sneak peak at the wall mural by Carlyn Wright-Eakes |
BBC: What made you want to settle and open a restaurant in downtown Durham?
LUNA: In 2009, my wife, Maria, and I moved to Durham—she to go to nursing school and I to graduate school. We immediately fell in love with Durham and the community, so that’s what compelled us to settle and start a family here. The forces that led me to open a restaurant started around the same time. I noticed the city was growing rapidly, as was the demand for quality restaurants. I also noticed that few places near downtown offered much along the lines of South American food. I started talking with Maria about how cool it would be to open up a little empanada shop. Over the following five years, the idea continued to evolve until I eventually couldn’t resist the opportunity to open Luna!
BBC: What is left to complete before Luna opens?
LUNA: If history is a guide, probably a lot more than I’ve accounted for. I knew this would be a huge undertaking, but I’m still blown away by how much foresight and coordination goes into opening a restaurant. I’m doing my best to let go of the things over which I have no control, such as construction and permitting, and just focus on testing new recipes and hiring a talented, skilled staff to execute them.
Luna will open at 112 W. Main Street in downtown Durham later this month (August, 2015)
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