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By Kathryn C. Weigel
Success in the restaurant business is woven in the DNA and life experiences of Rigoberto Parada, who has opened his second establishment in the Heritage Rivers Region. Luna Restaurant in downtown Hopewell joins Parada’s popular Andrades International Restaurant in Old Towne Petersburg in providing area residents and visitors with well-prepared and artf ully presented Latin cuisine and excellent service.
Parada started working in a family-owned restaurant in El Salvador as a boy. He stuck with what he knew when he and family members moved to the Washington, D.C. area. He had bused and waited tables, washed dishes, cooked and tended bar before he turned around a friend’s failing Maryland restaurant with his managerial skills several years ago.
Instead of accepting an offered partnership in his friend’s restaurant, Parada struck out on his own and moved south to the Heritage Rivers Region where he opened Andrades International in June 2005.
In September he opened Luna Restaurant on East Cawson Street in downtown Hopewell across the street from the historic Beacon Theatre and the new Appomattox Regional Library Headquarters. Its menu offers a savory blend of Latin American and Spanish dishes.
Parada’s two-story building in Hopewell’s historic downtown includes a banquet facility for 100 and a bar for up to 50 people on its second floor, in addition to the spacious first floor restaurant. Freshly painted and re-carpeted, the facility features new furniture and is convenient to the Hopewell Courts Building and the Municipal Building. On-street and off-street parking are available near-by.
 While the atmosphere at Luna is a bit more formal than the other restaurants inhabiting the former sporting goods store in the last two decades, it is family friendly. “I want to see families come – whole families – with their children to enjoy our food,” Parada said.
Several generations of Parada’s family owned restaurants in El Salvador, and he uses recipes he learned from his mother to prepare such delights as Polla Asada. This chicken dish is marinated in Mom’s special sauce for hours and then oven-roasted before it is served.
Hopewell’s commitment to rejuvenating its downtown and the absence of Latin cuisine in the area drew the restaurateur’s interest. “There is big potential here, and I like historic areas. Hopewell has built a new library across the street and is updating the downtown streetscaping,” Parada said. “Seeing the city making changes tells me it is time to do business in Hopewell.”
Even the gustatorially meek among the area’s diners owe themselves the opportunity to delight – and expand – their palates at Luna Restaurant.
208 East Cawson Street
Hopewell, VA 23860 • 804-452-5136
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