Success built on 12 orders of veal scaloppini

Luna’s one of city’s oldest restaurants, opened with couples’ determination, borrowed grocery money

By Donna Taketa / Special to The Independent Friday, Mar. 28, 2008

People told them no one would support them, that they would close in three months.

They were denied credit by the bank and borrowed money from a friend just to buy groceries.

The Libertas didn't hire any employees for that unadvertised opening day of their restaurant on a Monday in 1969, but they should have.

That first day, business boomed at the small Italian pizzeria, and 12 orders of veal scallopini alone confirmed to Franco and Carmella Liberta they would be a success.

"It went like a bomb. We were so bombed under," Carmella Liberta recalled. "Veal scallopini's are made to order, and we didn't have enough skillets in the back -- but we knew that night we were a success, we really did."

Those 12 orders of veal were ordered by 12 employees from the very bank that denied the Libertas a loan.

Almost 40 years later, Luna Pizzeria in downtown Clovis is still in business and still serving the same authentic Italian cuisine.

The restaurant was the first pizzeria in Clovis when it was opened in 1969 by the husband and wife. They had moved to California from New York to better the health of their two eldest children.

They left family who owned pizzerias and delis in New York, so it was obvious to the Libertas that they would open a restaurant here.

"I love to cook and I love to entertain," Carmella Liberta said. "Food was in our background." Her husband, Franco, has since passed away, and Luna's is now owned and managed by the Libertas' two sons, Bert and David. At the time of the restaurant's opening, they were just young children.

Despite having young kids, and a constrained budget, the Libertas never gave up on their dream.

"It was hard moving here, not knowing anybody," Liberta recalled.

Their only acquaintance was a friend's uncle, John Valentino. Valentino and his family would prove to be of invaluable assistance to the Libertas. He lent them the money to buy groceries for the opening.

"'You kids are in the middle of the ocean, either swim or drown,'" Liberta said, recalling Mr. Valentino's words. "So we've been swimming ever since." When their intentions to open a restaurant were known, Liberta recalled the uphill battle to buy a place and finance it.

"People discouraged us from opening a restaurant in downtown Clovis," Liberta said.

"They told us they would not support strangers-- and we were foreigners to them so we just told them we would do it anyhow. And they were wrong, they were really wrong," Liberta said with a laugh.

She credits God with the family's good fortune and peppers her anecdotes with her gratitude to him.

"On opening day I walked through the backdoor and said, 'Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, help us today, let it work because we don't know what we're doing.'" Liberta recalled. She says she never walks through the back door without a sign of the cross.

The business has since grown from just two people--Franco and Carmella--to almost 30 employees today.

"We were running all over so we hired two girls right off as they came in for lunch that first day," Liberta said. "We got them working that night." The children of those women work at the pizzeria today.

"It was totally family -- they became my extended family," Liberta said of her employees.

The Libertas' children also became ingrained in the business. Son David oversees the bookkeeping and ordering, while son Bert manages the culinary aspects. Until three years ago daughter Maryellen was also involved.

"It was always a part of me," Bert Liberta said about being involved in the restaurant. "It's a family business and we take pride in what we do. It's a lot different from commercial restaurants."

His mother remembered Bert, as a little boy, cleaning the ashtrays on the tables. "They liked the excitement of the restaurant," Carmella Liberta said. "I do, too. The pressure, the tension that goes on in everything."

Now Bert Liberta arrives at the restaurant in the early hours of the morning to make the fresh breads, sausages, pastas, and sauces.

Everything on the menu is made from scratch. The food is authentic to Abruzzie Italy (between Naples and Rome), where Carmella's family is from. She learned the recipes by observing her father and mother cook.

"It doesn't get any better then this. I've eaten at a lot of Italian restaurants and this is the best," said Keith Arnett on a recent evening. The Clovis resident has frequented the restaurant consistently since its opening when he was a freshman in high school. "If you eat here once you will be back." The Libertas take pride in the family atmosphere, generous portions and reasonable prices.

"We did not want fine dining," Carmella Liberta said about the decision she and her husband made prior to opening the restaurant. "We wanted family. We wanted them to come in like this was their own home."

To reciprocate the success, Liberta has been active in the community, giving to her church and charities.

"I love the small town atmosphere. It's just too bad we grew so fast-- nobody will know how much fun we had when it was small in town and we knew people as they came in," Liberta said.

But Arnett is one of those people.

"This is a really good place," Arnett said. "There may be new paintings on the walls and it may be modernized a bit, but the food is still done with love." Fellow diner Isaac Fernandez agreed.

“It’s like a religion. This is what we do,” Fernandez joked of eating frequently at the restaurant. “It’s a diamond in the rough.”

Friendly Faces is an occasional series about people in Clovis who make it a great place to live. To nominate someone to be profiled in this series, please e-mail Patti J. Lippert at plippert@clovisindependent.com.