Their plans for a Wichita restaurant are still on, but they’ll start with a to-go business
Carolina Brandan was one of several Wichitans who were laid off at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year and decided to use her skills in the kitchen to bring in some extra income.
She was also one of several Wichitans who quickly learned that, without the proper licensing and a commercial kitchen, it’s not legal to sell food to the masses that’s been made at home.
But now, almost a year later, Brandan and her husband, Chad Freeman, have solved that problem and are making a move that they hope will get them a step closer to their dream of opening an Argentinian empanada restaurant in Wichita, which they’ll call Argentina’s Empanadas.
The couple has just started renting time in the commercial kitchen at Reverie Coffee Roasters, 2202 E. Douglas, where late last year, owner Andrew Gough began offering time in his mostly unused kitchen to people like Brandan and Freeman who were trying to grow new food businesses.
They’re now producing their hand-made empanadas there three days a week, and starting this week, they’ll be selling them to-go from the Reverie space.
The duo plan to continue sales from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturdays through Mondays each week going forward. They also will look for opportunities to put on pop-up restaurant events around town.
People who are interested can see the menu on the Argentina’s Empanadas Facebook page and can place orders on Facebook or by calling 316-559-5650. They’ll also accept on-the-spot orders, and all orders will be delivered curbside. Empanadas cost $3 for one or $28 for a dozen.
Chad Freeman said that he and his wife are happy to be back in business. They had such a strong response to their empanadas before they were forced to stop selling them last year that they’re ready to get them back out in circulation.
They’re still planning to open a small boutique restaurant, he said, and eventually, they hope the business can be a full-time pursuit for both of them. They’re looking for the right space and will use their to-go sales to see how things go and make changes as needed.
“It’s a little bit of wait and see,” he said. “But we have goals, and all our energies are being put toward that.”
Brandan, who moved to Wichita from Argentina when she married her husband four years ago, worked in human resources for a local flight school and was laid off when the coronavirus pandemic started. Shortly after the Sedgwick County stay-at-home order started, Freeman posted on Facebook he had some empanadas — which are flaky meat pies popular in Argentina — for sale. The response was overwhelming.
Brandan didn’t grow up cooking empanadas and didn’t even try it until her husband, who fell in love with them while visiting her in Argentina, suggested she give it a try. Her first attempts were good, she said, but she became so serious about it, she hired a well-known cooking instructor in Argentina to teach her mother all the secrets, including how to make the perfect dough. Her mother then came to Kansas and taught her.
In the months since they stopped selling empanadas, the couple has been traveling the country and trying out different empanada restaurants, looking for ideas and seeing how other restaurants make them.
Freeman said his wife’s are the best. They come with a variety of fillings, including traditional beef, chicken, and ham and cheese, and they’re all hand-formed. The dough is thin and somewhat crispy, where other empanadas can be overly bready, he said.
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 12:00 PM.
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