Pineville brothers don't plan on La Luna Mexican Grille to be "another Mexican restaurant"

Brothers Omar Ayala, Jr. and Johnathan Ayala of Pineville don’t plan on La Luna Mexican Grille , 2624 Old Marksville Hwy., being just another Mexican restaurant in central Louisiana once it opens Monday, Aug. 19. They plan to do things differently, from offering good customer service, Mexican dishes with Southern culture cooked in and a vibrant atmosphere to dine. Yes, they will serve margaritas.

The hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Omar, 26, knows of the comments made on social media about there already being too many Mexican restaurants in Alexandria and Pineville every time people hear that one is opening up.

"They're right, to be honest with you,” Omar said. “There's a lot of Mexican restaurants. But mainly, the reason why we opened one is just because we grew up in the restaurant business.”

Mexican food is what they are accustomed to and know best. Their father, Omar Ayala, Sr., has operated Los Portales Mexican Restaurant, 3628 Monroe Highway Suite 148, in Pineville since 2005.

Despite the “another Mexican restaurant” comments, Omar said they’ve gotten a lot of support from people they know and old schoolmates from Pineville High School who are excited for them. And he loves that. Omar graduated from Pineville High School in 2016 and LSUA in 2020. Johnathan graduated from PHS in 2017 and from LSUA in 2021.

"I guess you say it's more than just a restaurant for us. We want our first restaurant to be here where we grew up,” Omar said.

Their strong ties here mean that they plan to stay here. From the time the restaurant opens, they will be the ones running it. They won’t just quickly open it up, leave and let someone else run it.

“Whenever we first decided to open the restaurant, we wanted to make sure that we had together what we wanted to offer,” he said.

Such as good customer service.

“We want to be able to take critiques. If somebody has something to say to us, we want to be able to take it and try to fix it,” he said.

Right now, they are working on trying to get the right mixture of margaritas, and they just hired a full-time bartender.

“We’re going to have very good margaritas. I know that for sure,” Omar said.

The restaurant will have a bar where customers can sit and order drinks or meals.

Some of the meals will include a little bit of Southern culture.

“We have crawfish mixed in with some of our Mexican food,” he said, such as crawfish dip and crawfish quesadillas.

His mother, Melissa Barber Ayala, came up with the crawfish dip when she was running the former restaurant El Parian Mexican Grille. La Luna Mexican Grille now occupies the former building.

“She told us, ‘You’ve got to do it again,’” he said. “So my brother and I decided to put it on the menu. And if I remember correctly, that whenever my mom was running the restaurant, people loved the crawfish queso.”

They’ll also have traditional Mexican dishes along with some specialties like Milanese de Pollo.

"We've I've never seen a place around here serve it,” Omar said.

The decor also stands out.

“This is this is what we were most excited about,” said Omar, showing one of the booths. Carved in the black enamel headrest is a white crescent moon between the words “La Luna.” Two crescent moons, one on each side, are in the upper corners.

Johnathan chose the art.

"It came out looking really good,” Omar said. “I told him that too. I was like, ‘Wow! These are amazing.’”

The restaurant is a mix of Mexican decor so it has something that will appeal to everyone.

There’s a large picture of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo hanging on one wall.

“She’s a famous one,” said Omar.

Another wall has a picture of a balcony scene with pink flowers and on another wall is a picture of a village street.

Walking into the dining area, it’s hard to miss the two life-size Dia de los Muertos metal figures and large prints.

“Which is what they celebrate in Mexico. We celebrate Halloween. They celebrate the day of the dead,” said Omar.

Their father guided them through the process of opening up a restaurant and what they needed to focus on. Omar and Johnathan originally planned an April opening, but their father told them not to rush it.

“If you're not ready, you're not ready. Don't rush it. Take your time. Because once you're open, you're open,” Omar said he told them. “There is no stopping, closing down the restaurant and doing something else.”

Getting close to the opening day, they are just trying to get done what needs to get done.

"We want it to look really good. And so far, it's been working out,” Omar said.

For more information, visit La Luna Mexican Grille on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Pineville brothers don't plan on La Luna Mexican Grille to be "another Mexican restaurant"