Then - 1960s Now - 2023 Moon Hut, a favorite eatery for astronauts, reopens in Cape Canaveral

BY MIKE GAFFEY

The Moon Hut, a once popular dining destination for NASA astronauts and celebrities for decades, has reopened in Cape Canaveral.

After a two-year renovation, the landmark restaurant welcomed back customers June 12 at its original location at 7802 N. Atlantic Ave., owner Vincent Keenan said.

“It feels great. It really does,” Keenan, 64, said of reviving the space memorabilia-packed restaurant, which first opened in 1958.

“The community loves it and it just fixes up that area of town.”

Visitors will find an updated menu and big-screen televisions airing NASA TV and space program-related videos. But the 148-seat restaurant’s signature Moon Burger is still on the menu. And the Moon Room, a banquet area where space explorers often enjoyed breakfast surrounded by autographed astronaut photos and mission patch stickers, is open again and already has been booked by aerospace agencies for special meetings, he said.

A New Jersey native, Cocoa Beach resident and realtor, Keenan bought the Moon Hut from original owners Nick and Poppy Holiasmenou in the early 1990s. Keenan then leased the restaurant to Nestor Martinez, who renamed the restaurant La Fiesta, switched to Mexican fare and eventually bought the property.

When COVID forced La Fiesta to close, Keenan repurchased the vacant restaurant in May 2021 and spent $440,000 to renovate the aging, 3,500-square-foot eatery.

“Everything is new in there,” he said. “I gutted it. I put a whole new kitchen in. All the equipment is new. All the hoods are new. The air conditioning is new. The roof’s new. The booths are redone. I kept the old booths, but very little else.”

An evolving menu inspired by young space industry workers’ healthier eating choices reflects the Moon Hut’s new slogan: “FRESH Outta This World.”

“Instead of home fries and grits you get a spring salad with fresh tomatoes and arugula and fruit cups,” Keenan said. “It was like a Greek diner, but now it has a European flair to it. Everything is made from scratch. I have chefs in there. We grind our own burgers, grind our own sauces. We make our own biscuits from scratch. We make our own pork loin, Canadian bacon and ham. We have juice extractors and a full barista. We also have ice cream shakes, sundaes, smoothies with fresh fruit, frappes and desserts.”

The restaurant is filled with framed items from Keenan’s extensive space-themed collection, and dozens more historic letters and photos are being framed for display, he said. The dining area also features a statue of a bug-eyed alien, and Keenan plans to install a second figure of a cross-legged extraterrestrial on the Moon Hut’s roof.

Current operating hours are 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. daily for breakfast and lunch, but Keenan plans to add a dinner menu and extend the restaurant’s hours to 9:30 p.m. Eventually, he hopes to provide 24-hour service to accommodate late-working employees at Kennedy Space Center and nearby Port Canaveral.

The extra hours should boost Keenan’s payroll to about 40 employees, he said.

Keenan also plans to add charging stations for Tesla drivers.

For Keenan, who has owned numerous restaurants during his 46-year career in real estate but now owns only the Moon Hut, the iconic restaurant that Keenan said is featured in a photo on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., holds a special place for him.

“I should be retiring but I have my passion at the Moon Hut so I’m going to keep going,” he said.

“This is more a feeling in my heart. I love Moon Hut and I’ve always loved the property and so I wanted to bring it back.”

For more information, go to moonhutrestaurant.com or call 321-613-3185. SL

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