The Barstool Fund - Luna Rosa Gelato Cafe
Up next: Luna Rosa Gelato Cafe (Greenville, SC)
Luna Rosa is a family owned and run gelato cafe and restaurant in Downtown Greenville, SC. They opened their doors in November 2007, and they serve authentic homemade Italian gelato (ice-cream), as well as NY Italian inspired comfort food.
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We are a family owned and run gelato cafe and restaurant in Downtown Greenville, SC. We opened our doors on Nov.19, 2007. Myself, my wife, my daughter, and my son-in-law call this place home. We serve truly authentic home-made Italian gelato (ice-cream), as well as , NY Italian inspired comfort food. Most recipes have been in our family for generations. Nothing 5 star… just simple, fresh, and made with the most important ingredient… love. Our little business, over the course of many years, continued to grow and we knew the next step was to expand into a bigger location. So after 11 years in business, we relocated our little (6 tables inside & 6 outside) restaurant to a new address with a larger foot print on Main Street in Downtown. This move allowed us to have more seating, as well as add a gorgeous craft cocktail bar and dinner service to our home. The previous location was only big enough to serve lunch and gelato. We opened our new store on Jan. 27, 2019. The first year of opening any business is full of pitfalls and learning curves and we navigated them all, taking notes along the way. We were very excited as we approached the Spring of 2020. Warm weather means happy gelato consuming patrons. Then St. Patricks day came and we were mandated by the state to only serve to-go food. This was devastating. We had to let all of our employees go and just the core family members including my 2 grandchildren kept the restaurant a float. Then came more mandates and in August of 2020 our whole family was infected by COVID-19. I was hospitalized and very sick for for the next 4 months. This entire past year has just been a nightmare. We have a lease on our space that is quite expensive and a landlord who just wants to keep getting his rent. And we are struggling to reach our seasonal months where we have the best shot for people to come out and patronize our store safely. Our hearts go out to the over 110,000 restaurants that have had to close over the last 11 months due to the pandemic. So it doesn't go un noted that our story is not unique. But, it is our story and our families livelihood that is at stake.