A Tale of Two Empanadas

Whether you’re looking for a snack to grab on the go or a slow-cooked meal to sit down and savor, two neighboring Hamden eateries have a common solution: empanadas.

“Gourmet” oxtail empanadas are one of the most popular small dishes at Ibiza, a Spanish Tapas and Wine Bar on Dixwell Avenue.

Just across from Ibiza, over on Wheeler Street, is the fast-food style cafe Grab & Go Empanadas, which offers around 20 different types of empanadas starting at $2 each.

The recipes, presentation, and philosophy behind the two restaurants’ turnovers may differ, but the mass appeal of empanadas as a staple comfort food holds true for diners throughout Hamden and beyond.

“Everybody Wants Empanadas”

“Everybody wants empanadas,” reasoned Lidier Barrantes, Ibiza’s head chef, as he tossed a couple of house-made empanadas into the deep fryer this past weekend.

On Sunday evening, Barrantes was busy preparing seafood ceviche, grilled rib steak drenched in peppercorn sauce, and crab croquettes. When this reporter first asked to learn how he makes empanadas, he and his team were surprised: the restaurant specializes in complex paellas, and serves several dishes that customers can’t find anywhere else in Hamden, like paprika octopus and lamb ravioli.

However, Barrantes admitted that Ibiza’s two empanada options — chicken and beef — are at the top of the restaurant’s best hits list. During the pandemic, he said, empanadas were a top takeout option while other meals, like paella presented still piping hot in the pan, couldn’t survive transportation properly. And nearby colleges and universities order hundreds of empanadas from Ibiza to cater events.

Unlike other dishes that Ibiza cooks fresh upon order, Barrantes makes roughly 300 empanadas each week in advance of a regular week at the restaurant.

It begins with two different fillings. For the shredded chicken empanadas, the chef starts by boiling chicken breast before adding it into sizzling onions and green peppers. The meat and vegetables are then spiced with saffron, onion powder, coriander, annatto, curry, and cumin, which cook together for only twenty minutes.

Meanwhile, the beef stuffing involves slow cooking oxtail for at least four hours with carrots and onion. Barrantes said seasoning for that filling is simpler; salt and pepper do the trick.

The meats are then packed into pre-bought dough, which is cut into circles, folded in half, and braided along the open edge to create an almost spherical, carby shell around the core ingredients.

Then, on busy evenings like Sunday, all Barrantes and his cooks have left to do is to bathe those frozen Spanish dumplings into boiling oil for three minutes— or until they reach a deep golden brown.

Chicken empanadas are topped with a delicate drizzle of Barrantes’ mustard aioli, and beef ones with a classic remoulade sauce, which also uses a mayonnaise base but includes hot sauce, cajun seasoning, and horseradish.

Then, the empanadas are plated with a fresh side salad coated in a sweetly bitter house dressing of parsley, honey, lemon, mustard, salt and pepper, and white vinegar (that this reporter would like to buy by the bottle).

Though the dish is meant to be shared, tapas style, it also functions as a full meal priced at $10. The empanadas almost burst with richly flavored meats flecked with colorful vegetables. The exterior is crisp, but covers a softer layer of dough that binds directly to the filling to create a holistic layering of textures.

The chicken empanadas are bright, light, and festive— the mustard aioli dissolves in your mouth while offering an acidic counterpart to the buttery, flakey crust— while their oxtail superiors are like a warm stew, held together by sweet carrots that bring out cinnamon-like notes.

Ibiza Manager Jerry Scott, who is also a vegetarian, said that the restaurant has experimented with cabbage empanadas, but that their customers always come back for beef.

Their vegetable empanada still makes its way into special menus, he said. Barrates invented the recipe during Hamden’s 2020 Restaurant Week, which will conclude this year on Saturday, Oct. 2 (see the featured restaurants here).

Scott said that Ibiza has participated in Restaurant Week for several years, practically since its inception. Lidier Barrantes, who hails from Costa Rica, bought Ibiza from previous owners, who had been stationed on Dixwell since 2009 under the same restaurant name, four years ago alongside Cesar Arboleda, who is originally from Colombia, and Jaime Lopez, who was born and raised in Ecuador.

The three originally met working at Paella Tapas and Wine Bar in Norwalk. Before that, Barrantes was a chef at the French Cafe Rive Bistro in Westport. While Lopez still owns and manages the Norwalk restaurant, Ibiza is the first time that Barrantes and Cesar, both chefs, have owned their own place.

That’s part of why, according to Scott, Ibiza chose to skip Restaurant Week this time around. After facing an existential crisis during the pandemic, it was their loyal customers that got Ibiza through.

Rather than focusing on drawing in new customers or imagining new specials, like vegetarian alternatives designed to satisfy a broader base of consumers, Scott said they wanted to celebrate the menu main-stays that their regulars love— and in turn, subtly express gratitude for those regulars.

“People really come for the food,” Scott said, despite the restaurant’s brand new bar room to the right of the central dining area. So long as they stay true to the quality and flavors their customers expect, Scott said he believes Ibiza has a long-term home in Hamden, no matter what comes their way.

“Delicious Food Is A Plus”

Meanwhile, Grab & Go Empanadas, a pandemic pop-up, is building its business on easy, affordable takeout foods and a comfortable, familial atmosphere.

The cafe is the manifestation of Carlos and Claudio Quito’s long-term dream to own a business together in the United States.

Carlos Quito, who has years of experience in the hospitality industry, is the restaurant’s manager while Claudio Quito acts as the lead chef, whose partner, Diana Toledo, also cooks at the restaurant. All three migrated to the U.S. from Ecuador in the 1990s.

Carlos Quito said that the cafe’s philosophy is built on ​“keeping it in the family nucleus” and providing the ​“highest hospitality possible.” In his words, ​“delicious food is a plus.”

In addition to sandwiches and all-day breakfast, the Quitos make what feels like millions of different empanadas: there’s chicken chipotle, philly cheese steak, salmon, shrimp, crab, spinach… and the list goes on.

Unlike Ibiza, which deliberately curates focused foods for a target audience, Grab & Go is designed to provide everyone who passes by their shop with a dietary option.

The Quitos said that their eatery attracts many of Hamden’s growing Ecuadorian and Spanish speaking residents, who look forward to the chance to eat traditional foods that were common in their home countries — like sweet mozzarella empanadas, a typical breakfast in parts of Ecuador — and to speak in their native tongue with the owners and employees.

Ultimately, Carlos Quito said that they have found a substantial and diverse local audience because ​“people like what we deliver: simple home cooking.”

“More simple is much better,” agreed Claudio Quito, scooping shrimp into a piece of dough, patting it shut, and placing it in the fryer. Two minutes later, the empanada was bagged and in the hands of a customer.

Grab & Go’s process is similar to Ibiza’s, but more straightforward, speedy, and on the spot. Claudio Quito makes fillings one day in advance, to give them time to chill, and uses a common base for every single empanada. That base is made up of oil, onions, adobo, cumin, liquid garlic, salt, pepper, and ​“a secret ingredient,” that looks a lot like annatto.

The most popular empanadas are, as Ibiza reported, chicken and beef. After stirring the spices together, Quito adds the meat. On Thursday, this reporter watched as he stirred chunks of chicken breast together— 20 minutes later, when the filling was ​“just cooked,” it went into the fridge.

The empanadas are then sealed with a fork and tossed in the fryer, producing large, bubbly semi circles, unlike the smooth, baked-like braids offered by Ibiza. The Quitos stick the empanadas in a wax paper bag along with a cup of ​“special sauce,” made of tomato, onions, jalapeño, and cilantro.

The result is generously portioned, juicy meat wrapped in a shamelessly greasy, chip-like crunchiness. The sauce is much tangier than Ibiza’s aioli, adding a sweet and sour sensibility to the more familiar flavors present in the empanadas themselves.

An empanada from Grab & Go is a totally different experience from another from Ibiza. But the competing products highlight a possible outcome of one big trend in town: as the number of Hispanic and Latino residents continues to rise in Hamden, Hispanic and Latino chefs are ensuring that they’re developing representative restaurants to meet a wider array of tastebuds.