As a 6-year-old, she immigrated to the US from Albania, where her family ran a restaurant. In Connecticut, her father landed a job at a local diner and, a decade later, bought the establishment and hired Luari.
Despite her family history in the restaurant business, Luari initially forged a different career path after college: She worked as the executive director of the Central Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, where she helped small, local businesses scale. It was there she noticed a void in the downtown Hartford brunch market, a business opportunity, she said.
For example, as she prepared to open her first location, she used her experience from the chamber to determine her best course of action. She took out a $26,000 line of credit, filed her LLC, applied for a liquor license, set up her payroll, determined her point-of-sale software, and created her menu.
The first step in the business branding was working with a graphic designer to create the logo and develop the printed menus, she said. Then, she hired a local artist to paint murals on the walls. She also scheduled a ribbon-cutting ceremony — something she'd spent a lot of time doing at the chamber — to ignite local interest in the business.