Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Best Seafood Restaurant
MAR LUNA RESTAURANT
JUAN FALLAS ZUÑIGA
May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it.
Irish Blessing
Nearly 20 years ago, a customer in a restaurant looked at his waiter and told him he saw
potential. “The man said, 'Just remember what I'm saying; someday you are going to have a
restaurant,'” Juan recalls. Little did he know that the customer had predicted his future. Like
the sloths that inhabit the surrounding jungle, progress towards that possibility seemed slow,
but nonetheless the goal remained in sight.
Juan Fallas Zuñiga had always wanted his own a restaurant, but necessity forced his
handaftertheterroriststrikesontheUnitedStatesin2001driedupmuchofthetouristtrade.
“Tourism went down so badly,” he says. “I didn't have a place to work.” Three months of
unemployment found him looking for an opportunity to change his fortune.
That chance came in the unlikely form of a car repair shop. Juan visited and admired
its ocean view. “I came here one time and looked at the place and thought, 'This could be a
restaurant instead of a body shop.' So I asked the man if I could rent out the space and he
said, 'Yeah.'”
Financing was a challenge, with banks unwilling to support his new venture. Juan had
been a waiter at most of the notable restaurants in town at one time or another, but this was
a new endeavor. However, with his wife's support the money was secured and he began re-
furbishing the property. He quickly realized how little he knew about setting up a restaurant;
he didn't even have a name. “It's not easy to name a restaurant. I was sitting here late one
night watching the moon over the ocean, and the idea came to me — Mar Luna.”
