Luna Cafe and Modelo Private Dining owner Claudia Amézquita did not initially intend to get into the culinary profession.
In fact, when she still lived in Colombia, she was a psychologist. Cooking has become a sort of second act, born from a mix of personal rebellion and a way to connect with her family. She officially opened Luna Cafe in downtown Simpsonville Dec. 5, 2025, bringing with it her Colombian heritage weaved into a longstanding dream to open a cafe.
Growing up, Amézquita recalled seeing the ladies in her house getting together and shredding chicken or peeling potatoes. Meanwhile, she remembered her male cousins playing soccer outside.
“But I’m a woman,” she recalled aloud. “So I started sitting in the kitchen with them, and if you were not doing anything then you’re not ‘getting the tea.’”
She tried business school and psychology but eventually attended the Escuela Gastronómica de Occidente in Cali, Colombia, longing for the community culinary arts could provide.
Business ownership is in Amézquita’s blood, so the idea came naturally. She founded Modelo a little more than two years ago, but when the space at 401 N. Main St. in Simpsonville was presented by a family friend, she was hesitant. She wasn’t sure she was ready.
She took a trip to Colombia in December 2024, where her father encouraged her to take the next step. By January, she was plugging away at buildout and learning as she went along.
Luna Cafe cuisine
Luna Cafe blends lunch and cafe options with house-made cakes, goodies and Colombian coffee. Amézquita serves a chicken salad sandwich with pickled onions on focaccia made with panela.
The name for the restaurant goes a little deeper than business and cooking. When she was a little girl, her mother would encourage her to look up at the moon in times of trouble, referring to the celestial body as a feminine energy. A few years ago, Amézquita became pregnant with a girl she would have named Luna after the memory, but she suffered a miscarriage.
“I just realized that I’ve got a lot of grief that has to do with … with females in my family,” she said. “And this has been a way to turn all that grief into the love that I still feel for every single one of those women whether I have met them or not.”
