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Luna’s Coffee, Wine and Butterfly Farm offers a unique experience dinning experience that local residents and visitors to Nicholasville will not soon forget.

“No one would expect moths and food, and butterflies and food to go together, but it does,” Alison Davis, one of the store’s owners said.

It offers tasty treats, coffee and a butterfly house–and don’t worry the food and the butterflies are kept separate.

Luna’s was founded by Davis and Web Barney, two University of Kentucky professors with interests in nature. Davis teaches in the college of agriculture as an agricultural economist and Barney is an entomologist.

Davis and Barney have been married for 12 years, and have combined their interests into a store front.

“My husband is a trained entomologist, and we’ve been raising moths and butterflies at home for about six years. And so we’d always talked about doing some type of store front, and then the county went wet in November of 2020, and we live right in this neighborhood and I’ve always looked for a place that’s a chill place to have a drink or a cup of coffee and study,” Davis said.

The store didn’t go up without any trouble, though. Luna’s opened in April 2021, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s a tough time to own a restaurant, the costs are skyrocketing … You’re always out of something,” Davis said. “We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve got great staff, so that hasn’t been an issue but certainly the costs of products is very high”.

The restaurant offers a variety of options: serving sandwiches, salads, soups and their specialty, charcuterie boards. Customers at Luna’s can order a specialized charcuterie board for events, as well as order from the full bar offered in house that features a large selection of special cocktails, coffees, tea, wines and beers.

The space can also be rented for special events such as bridal showers, baby showers or birthday parties.

“We have a bunch of regulars that come in and it’s really nice that people trust us and come in regularly and they’re like family to us. It’s so nice to feel like people support us,” Davis said.

The best time of the year to come and see the butterflies starts in June, in the store’s new butterfly house. The newest addition was completed in early May of 2022. The butterfly house hosts different butterfly species, caterpillars, caterpillar eggs and beautiful flowers. Customers are always invited stop in and enjoy the beauty of nature.

“For me, this is a place to come and just unwind. And I think we have a space that people really like to come and be a part of. It’s a pretty place. People seem to be happy and that’s all we care about,” Davis said.

Luna’s Coffee, Wine and Butterfly Farm is located at 109 Springdale Drive, Suite 4 Nicholasville, Ky. For more information on the restaurant, the menu or private rentals, visit their website, www.lunascoffeewine.com.