SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Luna Grill, the San Diego-based Mediterranean restaurant chain, is accelerating its expansion and has selected Texas to host the first group of out-of-state locations.
After its latest opening in Westpark Plaza (Irvine, CA) last December, Luna Grill ended the year with a total of ten restaurants in operation. Five additional locations are in the development phase and over a dozen top-tier lease sites are under consideration. Four new stores are set to open within the next four months in California, including Poway, Huntington Beach, Rancho San Diego and Aliso Viejo.
Looking beyond California, Luna Grill is on track to become a national chain. After extensive demographic and psychographic studies around the country, the area of Dallas/Fort Worth was selected to build a cluster of Luna Grill stores. The first Texas store will open this summer in Flower Mound.
Luna Grill expansion plans call for doubling its number of stores in 2014 to 20, and doubling again by the end of 2016 to 40. Dan Lowe, Director of Operations, stated, “I’m confident in our operations and leadership teams when it comes to opening new restaurant locations and achieving this goal.”
Last year, a new store development funding facility was secured from Argent Bank, a fully owned subsidiary of Sterling Financial Corporation. In the same year, Lowe, a seasoned operations manager with extensive experience at Chipotle, joined Luna Grill to develop a multi-store management system and organize a top-notch operations team.
Luna Grill is the brainchild of Maria Pourteymour, Co-Founder and Chief Cuisine Officer of the flourishing chain. Pourteymour, who brings her family’s restaurant background to the table, became concerned that when they ate out, her children weren’t getting a healthy meal. In creating the menu, she said, “I wanted to provide wholesome food that I’d want my own children to eat, so our menu is centered on food that is fresh, natural, healthy and delicious.”
Luna Grill is owned by Premier Food Concepts LLC, headquartered in San Diego, CA. For more information visit our website, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter.
