Valle Luna Mexican Restaurant, established in 1983, is getting ready to open a new location later this year in Phoenix at 25155 N 67th Avenue, Suite 134-138.
The company’s fourth location is set to move into the former home of Mi Familia Mexican Food, according to a recent liquor license application. Owner Janie Riddle tells What Now Phoenix the restaurant is expected to open on August 1. When it does, customers can expect Sonoran-style dishes, a welcoming family atmosphere, luncheon specials, children’s menus, and fast, friendly service. The new location will also feature breakfast on the weekends starting at 8 am.
The restaurant has a long history behind it, starting with Tia Rita, the family’s matriarch, who, in the mid-1970s, moved to upstate New York with her Arizona-Sonoran recipes. Tia Rita quickly set award-winning standards with her Mexican food, including being named “Best of Syracuse.” Upon returning to Arizona in 1983, Rita and the family founded the original Valle Luna on West Bell Road. While Tia Rita passed away in 2008, the restaurant was named “Best of Phoenix” the following year by New Times Magazine, validating her life’s work. Today, the restaurant continues to celebrate and honor Rita’s ideals of quality, affordability, and excellence in food and drink. The company has locations in Chandler, Northwest Valley, and Paradise Valley.
“Valle Luna is an old-fashioned family-owned-and-operated business that proudly observes the Sonoran food traditions,” according to the company’s website. “The entire southern border of Arizona is bounded by the great Mexican state of Sonora. With their proximity and stark topographic similarities, it is only natural that these two friendly states would share their cultures, reflect such things as architecture and building style, music and language, and of course, food and drink traditions.”
