Denver-born restaurant turns 15 years old and expands to unique places

Lorena Cantarovici didn’t get to meet her sports hero, Argentine professional footballer Lionel Andrés “Leo” Messi, when the Inter Miami CF played the Colorado Rapids last month.

But he ate food from her restaurant, Maria Empanada, and that’s pretty cool, too.

“I was dreaming to meet and giving the empanadas to Messi,” Cantarovici said in a recent interview with The Denver Gazette. “But of course, that didn’t happen. But I know at least he ate our empanadas, and that was the best part of the story.”

Maria Empanada, in its 15^th year, has expanded to five locations, including recently at Denver International Airport and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for Rapids games.

Cantarovici brought on former Snooze A.M. Eatery Chief Marketing Officer Andrew Jaffe to lead the company as CEO in October.

Let the “buena onda” begin.

That means “good vibes” and it’s been Maria Empanada’s guiding principle since Cantarovici started cooking in a small Denver kitchen after arriving from Argentina with $400 and a dream.

“I’m excited to continue growing and I’m excited to talk about what’s happening around us” with the restaurant’s South Broadway location near both a new professional football stadium for the Denver Broncos to the west and the Summit FC’s new stadium to the east,” she said. “That’s fun. And Maria Empanada is a company that is fun.”

Jaffe’s pretty excited, too.

“I think as a female entrepreneur and as a female leader, her story is nothing short of amazing and inspirational,” he said of Cantarovici. “For me, what’s important is to continue to have more female role models in the community. And I’ve said this to other people before. I’m a girl dad, so I think the more female leadership that’s out there, paving the path, I think is incredibly important.”

Growing the brand while staying true to roots

Jaffe described the company’s “cultural pillars” guiding its growth and attention to detail in existing operations.

“What got me excited about coming here was it’s a highly disruptive brand, a highly disruptive business founder-led company that just has a really deep, rich, cultural foundation,” he said. “One of the things we talk about here at Maria Empanada is leading with buena onda – putting good vibes into the world, our community and everything we do.”

It starts with delicious “crave-able” food.

“There’s just so much you can do with an empanada, which is really exciting,” Jaffe said. “The vibe and ambience is the other piece that complements the authenticity of the food.”

From the employees greeting each visitor with eye contact, a warm welcome and time to explain the dizzying varieties of empanadas, to Cantarovici herself. Before The Denver Gazette interview, she spent time talking with longtime customers who were eating.

“Our labor model can be incredibly, incredibly efficient and gives us the ability to really also provide amazing hospitality,” Jaffe said, describing how the food is made with “love” and “pride.”

Quick and easy … for the customer that is

The move to DIA showed how the business model could work in both a brick-and-mortar restaurant but also at a terminal booth. The empanadas are made at its Broomfield commissary and brought to both DIA and Dick’s.

The ease with which the dough-wrapped empanadas are served at the point-of-sale area speaks to the food’s flexibility, but customers don’t see the time and care spent hand-folding each of them.

“It’s just incredibly versataile,” Jaffe said.

“We wanted the volume of people. We wanted the line to see how fast it goes,” Cantarovici said. “If you know what you want, you have the food in less than one minute. Your food is ready and in your hands. And that is absolutely a benefit that we have with all the rest of the items. You don’t need to wait for a hamburger to be cooked. You don’t need to wait for something to be wrapped.”

It’s worked well for soccer fans, too.

“They’re crushing it,” said Rapids Chief Business Officer Haley Durmer. “From a sell-through standpoint, they’re doing wonderfully. But from a fan favorite, they are also doing very well.”

How many sports fans do you see taking leftover hot dogs or pizza or nachos home? Well they take empanadas to go, Durmer said.

“Without a doubt, since our first home opener, we’ve had multiple, multiple comments on people’s excitement around Maria Empanadas being in the stadium, and how much they love them, and the quality of the food,” she said. “A lot of sports venues really struggle with the line between quality and quantity, in a lot of respects. You don’t have that compromise with them, which is great.”

Jaffe said targeting a soccer stadium was a natural outreach for the restaurant, which has hosted huge watch parties for big games at the South Broadway location.

“Certainly, what we see at Dick’s Sporting Goods, there’s no doubt there’s a lot of families and season ticket holders, and we think that’s also a good sweet spot for us as we continue to grow the brand,” he said.

And they’re excited to talk to Summit FC.

“I think this is the ultimate football food, the empanada,” Jaffe said. “The food travels so well. They stay warm and maintain their integrity. That also speaks to the quality of our dough and the quality of the ingredients. It’s like this beautiful pocket.”

The World Cup watch parties begin at Maria Empanada’s South Broadway location on June 11.

Branching out to new flavors

The empanada’s versatility is great for experimenting with new flavors, too.

Three new ones traditionalists would not expect included in an Argentine empanada include: Italiana, Roast Corn & Cotija and Miso Chili Crisp Steak. They also have house-made sauces and dips like Chimichurri and Asado Grill — something you’d never see in Argentina.

“My grandmother would kill me, but she doesn’t know because she’s not here,” Cantarovici said. “But this miso steak — it’s one of my favorites now. We wanted to create some excitement in the brand, and even some excitement in me. Honestly, I was a bit tired of eating those 12 flavors.”

She describes it as the “second wave of migration.” Empanadas originally came from Spain to Argentina. They put their own spin on it. Now Cantarovici is bringing them to the United States and putting an American, or Asian or Italian spin on them.

“You not only have the authenticity of this global format in the empanada, but now you’re also bringing more culinary-forward flavor combinations,” Jaffe said.

Asked if she’d expected to be so successful as a restaurant owner 15 years ago, Cantarovici said she had no doubt. She also knew she wouldn’t be able to do it alone.

“I come from a background that is a bank. So, process, systems, manuals, all that was in my in my background, right? That’s what I brought in my backpack. So, when I opened Maria Empanada, I knew that it would be hard in another country, not knowing the language, with another process, with other systems of a country on how to open a business,” she said. “But I knew that always will be with the intention of having an incredible team.”

She looked to Jaffe.

“But now having somebody who knows more than me and how to do it, this is what I was waiting for,” Cantarovici said. “As you know, Maria is my mom. So, I named it after her. I can’t wait to see her name everywhere.”