the people of luna red: renee o’steen
How did you get into the restaurant industry?
My family has always been in the restaurant industry, its sort of in my blood. I did banquet serving all throughout college. When I came back to the central coast, I got a serving job. Hospitality comes natural to me. I’ve done other things but this has been my favorite so far. It’s fun talking to people and making their experience great.
What’s your favorite part about your job?
There’s a lot that I love. It makes me really happy to give people a beautiful, enjoyable experience and being able to meet so many people, you’re constantly meeting new people here. I also love working with food, fun cocktails and coming up with fun creative ideas.
Me serving here for as long as I did, I got to establish some great regulars and it feels great to have that relationship.
What’s your favorite menu and cocktail items?
I obviously love the paella. I’m super excited for our new lunch menu, where we have all paellas portioned for one person.
To mix it up for dinner, I love sharing the seafood curry. It’s so flavorful.
What’s your favorite cocktail?
Special herbs! I’m a huge tequila person and love all of our tequila drinks, but the gin based special herbs is my favorite. I love the spice from the jalapeño and it's very herbaceous and super refreshing.
What's your favorite industry bar?
My favorite industry bar is Sidecar, I feel like the bartenders there are like second family to us.
What are you excited about for Luna Red?
I’m excited for our new lunch menu because we have a lot of great new items. Also I’m looking forward to the tiki drink menu that will be available Tuesdsays and Thursdays - there’s a lot of really fun, creative things that are new to me which is exciting. I tried ‘peel good inc.’ which is a Korean banana milk rum drink with oat milk. It was sooo good. Not overly sweet and I cant find a cocktail like that anywhere else in SLO.
How long have you been working at Luna Red?
I started when we reopened during covid, so about 3 years.