Photo by co-founder Neidy Gutierrez.
Julian Muscio grew up in the restaurant industry.
A child of immigrants from Argentina, Muscio and his siblings grew up working in and out of their family’s restaurant, Paisano’s, a beloved Italian restaurant in Rutherford.
When Muscio moved to Jersey City ten years ago, he didn’t know what he wanted to pursue. Then he saw a vacant space at 279 Grove Street. So he took a chance and opened Luna.
Muscio celebrated six years this past April since opening the restaurant and bar that serves Italian food with a Spanish twist. He told Slice of Culture that Luna’s main goal is to continue creating special moments for its customers and getting involved with the community whenever possible.
“COVID brought to light going out again… and how you value going out to dinner with friends, like wow, we really took it for granted,” he said.
“We realized [at Luna] that these are special moments like you don’t always get to see your aunt who’s visiting or you don’t always get together with these friends that you see maybe only once or twice a year. So it’s really up to us to make that night special or that lunch special.”
Luna stands directly across the street from Jersey City’s city hall and is less than a five minute walk from the Grove Street PATH station. Snuggled between Razza and More Express Thai Street Food, you’re welcomed by a long bar counter–with an expansive alcohol collection–and letters “L U N A” on a light blue wall. Walking further, the atmosphere shifts slightly, and now you’re in a more celestial setting with soft lights and greenery above you, exposed brick walls and a hologram of a full moon, or Luna.
Muscio said he had about 50 names to choose from for the restaurant, and each one would’ve taken the concept in a different direction. Ultimately, Luna was chosen, which means moon in many languages including Spanish–the language Muscio grew up speaking.
“We wanted a word or symbol that kind of encompassed something that belongs to everybody,” he said.
Luna’s menu was also curated to try and cater to everyone.
With food inspirations from Italian, Spanish and American cultures to other countries Luna’s team has visited, dishes that are offered include cajun calamari, empanadas, cacio e pepe and churrasco, to name a few. Every pasta is homemade, either from in-house or from Muscio’s family restaurant, Paisano’s.
But there’s also food a catered menu for the bar. They offer a “che” pizza, which is a Detroit-style pizza, but it’s a personal pizza; Detroit style is known for its thick, rectangular crust but soft and airy insides, and it’s usually big enough to share. At Luna, you can have it to yourself.
For drinks, Luna offers your standard mixed drinks, but they also have seasonal menus. Right now, they’re in their spring cocktails, which includes eight different recipes like Los Heavy, Rosalita and Jersey Devil. But one of their must-have sips–according to locals–is their espresso martini, which has won “Best Espresso Martini in Jersey City” for two years in a row; Muscio noted that they’re going for a third.
“It’s really an honor to hear people tell you, ‘Oh my God, I love this dish’ and it’s something that you created,” he added. “In this business… space for creativity is really limited, but you can do that in your menu, in your drinks… and your space.”
And aside from the food and drinks, customers are immersed in the space’s aesthetics and atmosphere, which Muscio said all matters for the experience.
A lot of the aesthetics were already built into the space: the exposed brick and upstairs loft above the bar. It was just a matter of putting Luna’s twist on it and how it can be different from the space before, which was called The Merchant–a 12-year-old American pub that also offered some dishes from different cultures–and was “beloved by the community,” as Muscio has been told.
But after serving dishes to the community for six years, Luna seems to have found its footing. From participating in city restaurant weeks and restaurant fests to showing up for the community when they can, Muscio said it’s nice to know that Luna has been part of Downtown Jersey City’s transition to becoming an up-and-coming city.
“We are bringing a nice fine dining experience, but that also has a nice, casual atmosphere to people where maybe they couldn’t get it before,” he added.
And their offerings and services seemingly improved because of how the COVID-19 pandemic hit them. It affected them like everyone else, Muscio said, and when they were faced with an option to not renew the lease, Muscio decided to keep pushing through.
Some changes stayed permanent like the outdoor space in front of the restaurant, interactive QR code menus and their Uber and Grub Hub delivery options. Muscio said the pandemic had a “huge” mental toll from trying to run a business but also keep his and his employees’ health safe, but now the team and business are “better than ever.”
“We want to be a place that is always recognized as being high quality,” Muscio said.
“… Doesn’t matter when you’re here, what matters is you enjoy the time that you are [here]. You put your faith in us so we gotta give that back.”
