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La Luz del Dia café served breakfast and lunch in Globe-Miami by the same family for more than half a century. The large coffee cup above the sidewalk at 304 N. Broad Street is a downtown landmark. Last year, the business went up for sale.
“Once I got the picture and the history, I knew we needed to keep it,” says Josh Asanovich, one of the new owners.
Josh wasn’t looking for another business opportunity. He had never invested in a restaurant. The first time he walked through the door of La Luz was to sit down with Dolores Salcido to discuss the sale of the building and the family business she had worked in since she was a teenager. She had received a few offers.
“In the end what they valued more than the money was the 50-year legacy of the restaurant and the family,” says Josh.
Family Legacy
It began when Carmen and Ernie Vasquez opened a Mexican pastry shop in Miami. When they came to town, John Mendiola was a teenager. He and his friends spent a lot of time hanging out in their shop. Their offerings expanded to include Mexican and American classics.
“They made a lot of good comfort food,” John says. His favorite was the Pancho burro (hamburger, onion, green chile and cheese), named for Frank Bache (nicknamed Pancho).
Decades later, La Luz still feels like being in someone’s kitchen—Oscar Serrano’s kitchen. Oscar knows his way around the grill. He worked in his first kitchen at age 16. After three restaurants in Hayden-Winkleman and the casino, he was doing a side hustle cleaning properties when approached about the La Luz opportunity. He agreed to be a part of it.
“That was the game changer,” says Josh. “Once we knew Oscar would run the restaurant for us, that’s when we knew this was viable, that it can be a good thing for everybody.”
Josh and his partners purchased La Luz in January 2024.
“Definitely different than anything we’ve done before,” says Josh. “Steep learning curve.”
New Owners, Familiar Vibe
The menu hasn’t changed but Oscar is offering up monthly specials like green chilaquiles. The schedule hasn’t changed (6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; closed Wednesday). The framed $20 and $50 are off the wall, but otherwise things look the same.
There is a hot grill, counter service, and five 4-tops. Many customers are greeted by name. The restaurant stays busy with take-out orders and indoor diners all morning. A young family orders burros and cheesy eggs for their 3-year-old, cheeseburgers and fries for the teens in the booth, and a pile of potatoes gets put on the grill.
“The food is excellent. The people are great,” says Art Sanceto.
Art lives four blocks away and has been coming to La Luz for 40 years; he orders all over the menu. Today it’s a toasted tuna salad sandwich with fries and an iced tea. A veteran of the Korean War and worked for 35 years in mining. La Luz del Dia Cafe, he says, is a meeting place for a lot of retirees.
“La Luz is a piece of the fabric of the community,” Josh notes. “It’s like Dick’s Chicken in Miami.”
Josh lived in Miami for most of his childhood; he moved to Gilbert, at age 13. He played baseball at Highland High and ASU and was drafted by the Tampa Rays. At 41, he works in real estate sales and investment and is co-owner of youth sports facilities in Gilbert, North Phoenix and East Mesa. His business education, he says, consists of “failing and and trying again.”
At 41, Josh is part of a new generation of investors invigorating downtown Globe. With longtime business partners Daniel Bartlett and Shane Peck, and his sister, Adrea France, he holds several properties, including the “Flower Shop” building (Anna’s Petals) at 610 N Broad Street. Josh is a realtor and owner of Smart Concept Realty and has been selling properties in Globe for five or six years.
“We grew up here,” he says. “We want to see Globe thrive.”
Having had a taste for the restaurant business, Josh has partnered up with Anthony Puskaric to give GilaHogs BBQ a permanent new downtown home in the “Big-nosed Kate” building.
“Change is needed, both for people coming in and everyday economics,” says Josh, “but what makes this place special should remain.”
A traveler, Patti Daley came to Globe in 2016 to face the heat, follow love, and find desert treasure. She writes in many formats and records travel scraps and other musings at daleywriting.com.
