Casa Luvia to bring fun, upscale Mexican dining experience to Pensacola

A new Mexican restaurant is coming to Pensacola, replacing the former Denny’s at 7748 N. Davis Highway, with a soft opening set for October.

Owner Luvia Gameros is determined to ensure her incoming restaurant, Casa Luvia, is “not just any Mexican restaurant.” She intends to wow guests with elevated cocktails, modern décor and detailed plates topped with edible flowers.

Gameros has worked in restaurants since she was a teen and garnered extensive experience as she worked her way up from serving to management. Through the years of hard work and long shifts, she has developed not only an eye for detail but also a passion for creating memorable customer experiences. So much so, she’s often thinking about ways to step up her game even when visiting restaurants on her days off.

Now, she plans to put all her experience and heart into the restaurant she’s been dreaming up all year. She hopes Casa Luvia will become the go-to spot for special occasions like anniversaries and birthdays, as well as a regular after-work margarita crowd that her staff will come to know by name.

See the elevated Mexican dining style Casa Luvia has planned

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Casa Luvia is coming soon to 7748 N. Davis Highway, with a soft opening set for October. The new restaurant aims to offer flavorful Mexican cuisine and handcrafted cocktails in an elevated dining environment that looks as good as the food tastes.

(Courtesy of Luvia Gameros)

When it comes to the menu, Gameros can’t recommend the fajitas enough. This isn’t your typical pull-the-meat-out-of-the-fridge-and-throw-it-on-the-grill dish, she said.

Preparation begins over 24 hours before the meal is ordered, starting with from-scratch marinades and finishing with homemade garlic sauce for serious flavor in every bite.

The details carry over to the craft cocktails as well. Guests can watch fresh citrus being squeezed to make their margaritas before they’re sweetened with 100% pure agave.

Guests can choose individual entrees, such as a simple burrito, or opt for a shareable spectacle for the table, such as Casa Luvia’s tableside guacamole service.

She wants her dishes to be as visually appealing as they are delicious, and she envisions her menu’s molcajetes—traditional stone dishes stuffed with shrimp, steak, chicken and grilled cactus—to be show-stoppers.

Diners will also need to save room for her baked banana brulee, topped with vanilla bean ice cream and a reduced Mexican candy sauce.

On her menu, you’ll see the phrase “Hecho con amor,” meaning made with love, and she really means it.

Gameros said she plans to “meet people halfway” on how traditional the menu is compared with other Mexican restaurants. Micheladas, which resemble an American Bloody Mary but use Gameros’ own tomato-based recipe, are a must. But the restaurant will also feature items that wouldn’t typically make a Mexican restaurant’s menu, like a glass of champagne with strawberries, she said.

Leaning into the name Casa Luvia, her menu reflects what she enjoys eating and drinking and is intended to give guests the feeling of walking into her own home. Except this home has sparkling crystal chandeliers, sage green leather booths and gold silverware.

Gameros, who purchased the building earlier this year, had to make some major changes to the former diner to match her vision. She said she probably could have opened sooner, but it was more about curating the perfect experience rather than opening sooner to start profiting.

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“Every single detail has been thought about,” she said. “I want you all to see what I’ve been working on once those doors do open.”

When hiring, Gameros often asked potential employees what they themselves could do to make the dining experience unique to Pensacola. She has assembled her core team, including her head chef and management, but is now looking to find the remaining faces that will begin greeting customers next month.

While the restaurant is upscale in design, she still plans to create a lively atmosphere for guests.

“I haven’t recently been to a restaurant where it’s nice and it’s fun,” she said. “I believe a customer can get the best of both worlds.”

Given how welcoming Pensacola has been to her so far, she considers the city the perfect starting point for Casa Luvia, which she hopes to expand to other states later.

She is planning to quietly open the restaurant’s doors to guests in October to help her employees get acquainted with the workflow, then host a grand opening celebration about a month later, if all goes to schedule.

While construction is still underway, guests can follow along with Gameros’ journey by following Casa Luvia on Instagram for updates and information.

Brittany Misencik is a veteran dining reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. If you have a news tip, send it to BMisencik@pnj.com. Stay up to date on the latest restaurant news by subscribing to our free Pensacola Eats newsletter, delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign up for the newsletter at profile.pnj.com/newsletters/pensacola-eats/.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Casa Luvia to bring fun, upscale Mexican dining experience to Pensacola