When the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing lockdown called on business owners and customers alike to do more for their community, Luna Rotisserie and Empanadas chef and owner Shawn Stokes didn’t need to think twice.
“There was no resistance to the new practices,” Stokes said.
Luna, a South American and American South fusion restaurant located in the former Milltown location on Main Street in Carrboro, was quick to move all business online, offering roadside pick-up and upping its already-high sanitation standards.
Stokes built his restaurant on the principles of community service, and is still finding ways to give back. So far that’s meant doing delivery with local business Takeout Central, finding a local seamstress to provide masks and donating meals to healthcare workers on the front lines.
“Anything I can do to keep people working,” Stokes said.
While the future is uncertain for everyone, Luna has been a “positive force in the community” since Stokes opened the Durham location in 2015. The Carrboro location opened shortly before the shelter-in-place restrictions were enacted in North Carolina. And he has no intention of faltering on that promise now.
“I wanted to try and create a restaurant that behaves very differently from other restaurants,” Stokes said.
When Stokes opened Luna, he said he swore to pay living wages, provide healthcare benefits and sick leave, always source sustainably with antibiotic free meats and never exploit his staff.
Implementing and sticking to these values has had a waterfall effect on making Luna a great place to both work and eat. Staff stick around, he said, even in positions like dishwasher where Stokes says most restaurants see rapid turn-over, which helps preserve classic recipes and ensures that customers get the same quality food every time.
“I would rather give someone a raise than turn-over a position,” Stokes said. “And it’s reflected in the quality of the food.”
And speaking of the food, Luna’s offerings also set it apart, expertly fusing South America and the American South. Many of the flavors are also inspired by Stokes’ time serving in Ecuador with the Peace Corps.
Specifically, Stokes pointed out their traditional Pollo a La Brasa as a prime example of their Andean influence. They go to great lengths to recreate the flavor as well, importing an exact charcoal oven from Lima and cooking it traditionally over a 48-hour period.
“Whenever I taste it,” Stokes said. “It just takes me right back to Ecuador.”
Before opening Luna, Stokes took what is definitely an unorthodox path to restaurant ownership. He left the restaurant industry entirely in the early 2000s, disillusioned with the exploitative and wasteful nature of the business, instead pursuing a degree in international business that led him to a career in micro-finance.
While Stokes’ career in international development would take him all over the world, he couldn’t seem to stay away from food. Particularly, he spent a lot of time in South America, finding ways to improve the “environment and the economy.”
Both Stokes’ passion for the triple-bottom line and his appreciation for South American cuisine would come together when he found himself in Durham and on the verge of opening a restaurant.
“I was only going to do it if I could re-invent some aspects of the restaurant industry,” Stokes said.
And, in the years since its opening, Luna has made true on that promise. The recent crisis might be coming as a wake-up call to others, but, for Stokes and his team, it’s just another opportunity to keep working, to keep serving, and to keep making the kind of food you can build a community around.
You can find Luna Rotisserie at 307 W. Main St. in Carrboro and view the menu online. You can also order Luna from Carrboro United on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Written by Jack O’Grady, photos via Shawn Stokes
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