Moya offers innovative cuisine in a beautiful and elegant setting that's easy for everybody to enjoy.
CHEF Heriberto Yunda
Heriberto Yunda is chef and owner of Moya, the finest restaurant in Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania. At Moya, Heri offers innovative, elegant, straightforward cuisine in a beautiful setting that's easy for everybody to enjoy.
Heriberto was born and raised in the Chimborazo state of Ecuador. His initial entrance into the culinary world was cooking in the Ecuadorian rainforest for American oil company executives.
Shortly after emigrating to the United States, Heri moved to New York City where he worked in many Manhattan restaurants. He cooked with chefs as notable as Charles Palmer and Matthew Kenny, and assisted Kenny in opening Matthew's, where Heri worked as Chef de Cuisine for seven years. During this time, Heri was commissioned as chef and consultant in opening two restaurants located in Istanbul, Turkey.
In 2002 Heri and his wife Stephanie moved to Pennsylvania. Soon after the birth of their daughter Maxine, they moved to Jim Thorpe and opened their new restaurant. Moya is named after Heri's home town of La Moya in Ecuador.
Heri's thirty-eight years of experience in the culinary arts has led him to a keen understanding of his craft. His primary goal in opening Moya is to offer gourmet, eclectic cuisine. Heri's food has few rules and is executed in a relaxed, healthy style with an emphasis on flavor and freshness. His menu is constantly changing to accommodate local product and palate.
Stephanie Verme
Moya is also home to the paintings of noted local artist Stephanie Verme, wife of Chef Heri Yunda and the co-owner and manager of Moya.
Stephanie is a native of Durham Connecticut and received her Fine Arts Diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. After earning her degree, Verme relocated to New York City where she continued training at the Art Students League of New York under the tutelage of her mentor Stephen Greene, the American Modernist Painter.
Her time in New York was a critical period of artistic development and afforded her innumerable opportunities for creative expression. As a window display designer, her work was regularly seen in boutiques from Soho to Madison Avenue. She served as Scenic and Costumer Designer for many Off-Broadway productions, and was contracted as an Interior Design Consultant and Decorative Painter for several private residences throughout Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Verme's work is clearly influenced by her extensive travels throughout Europe, South America, and her year and a half of residence in Istanbul, Turkey.
Today, Stephanie works from her studio, which is co-located with the restaurant and the family residence on Race Street in Jim Thorpe.
Phone
(570) 325-8530
Location
24 Race Street
Jim Thorpe, PA 18229-2004
Hours
Thursday 5pm-9pm
Friday 5pm-10pm
Saturday 5-10pm
Sunday 5-8pm
Closed Monday Tuesday and Wednesday