Today we’d like to introduce you to Teri Haymer.
A passion for food and restaurants started at a very young age when Teri would try every recipe from back to front in the Betty Crocker Cookbook. Starting at the age of 10, Teri became the family chef and prepared and served her family complete meals.
After college, Teri spent many years in the corporate world working with chefs on food preparation and demonstrations. She attended cooking classes in San Francisco and spent time in Italy studying with a local chef. She worked with private catering clients and traveled extensively while climbing the ladder in her corporate career. Food was always the focus, and she never wavered in her passion to become a chef in the restaurant world.
Ten years ago, Teri and her husband had the opportunity to open Cafe Luna in Central Square, Cambridge. Cafe Luna grew from a small cafe with 24 seats to a thriving restaurant now located in Kendall Sq. known widely for its weekend brunch. Their son Alex, a trained chef, joined the business to head up the catering segment of the business. Their younger son Justin runs Cafe Luna Express in the Central Sq. location.
Teri’s food philosophy is to cook and serve “approachable comfort” food with a serious, upscale twist which entails the use of fresh, local ingredients. She is inspired every day by new ideas and looks to modern techniques as well to old favorites to generate new and creative menu items.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There is never a smooth road in this business. In the original location, we had to make a kitchen work that I affectionately call “the closet”. We could only fit three people in the kitchen, closely side by side. The prep was done at the sandwich station and we had to be very creative with storage space, utilizing every inch.
Matt, my husband, and business partner runs the front of the house and was just as creative in seating people in our tiny space when the brunch became so popular that 100 people at any given time were waiting for the limited number of seats. This ultimately led to our moving to our new space in Kendall.
Please tell us about Cafe Luna.
Cafe Luna is most known for weekend brunch but we are also a very popular weekday lunch spot and do extensive catering to MIT, Harvard, Broad Institute, and the local Pharma companies. I believe what sets us apart in all areas of our business is an obsessive attention to detail in all areas. The food, the customer service, and the presentation. We strive for perfection in all areas. We don’t always get there at all times, but we never stop trying.
I am most proud of the fact that we’re able to build our business and reputation in such a small space to start and that we have been able to continue the growth in both the restaurant and the catering business while taking on building new locations for both sides of the business.
What my greatest source of pride is, however, is that we are a true local, family owned and operated business that we created and made successful at a later stage in our careers.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Too many to list…. however, by learning as we went along, it made us even more creative, adaptable and determined to figure out and solve the obstacles to growth.
Contact Info:
- Address: 612 Main Street
403 Mass Ave Cambridge - Website: www.cafeluna-centralsq.com
- Phone: 617 576-3400
- Email: teri@cafeluna-centralsq.com
- Instagram: cafelunacentral
- Facebook: @cafelunacentralsq
- Twitter: @cafeluna
- Yelp: cafe luna
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
