In Argentina, you can tell an empanada by the shape of its fold, hand-creased on top. Chicken empanadas carry four precise points in their crust. Beef empanadas feature a braid that curves to the right. Ham and cheese empanadas get their fold wrapped around them like shoelaces or a bow.
At Che Tano, Janina Kendall’s spring lunch pop-up in the largely food-deserted Lincoln Park, the empanadas and their folds follow suit. They come with fillings from all the meats to vegetarian spinach or lentils. Their golden dough took its chef seven years in Colorado to perfect.
“I’m back to basics,” Kendall says of her empanadas, made with at most five ingredients, like her grandparents taught her back in Argentina.
Her alfajores are filled with dulce de leche and sandwiched between two cookies made of butter and cornstarch; and her lomito steak sandwiches are made with melted cheese, chimichurri (just vinegar, olive oil, parsley and garlic), tomatoes, lettuce and a fried egg on top.
Kendall and her husband, Jason, prepare their empanadas in a shared cooking space at Global Kitchen inside the Forge building, 970 Yuma St., and serve their traditional food at a walk-up counter, fit for two diners or for takeout. Their lunches serve a neighborhood otherwise filled with some startups, and auto and metal shops. Nearby is Denver’s only marijuana cafe, The Coffee Joint.
“It was really tough for them to find a commissary kitchen they could afford in Denver,” said Michelle Lasnier, who runs the nonprofit R Bazaar, which helps Kendall and other refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs, artists and chefs sell their products around town through pop-up events.
With R Bazaar’s new Global Kitchen, Lasnier is hoping to fill a need in the neighborhood while helping chefs like Kendall build up their businesses. R Bazaar contributes half of the commissary kitchen rent and supports with deliveries and catering services. Customers can order ahead from the website ChowNow for Tuesday or Thursday lunch service, either for delivery or pickup.
For now, Che Tano’s is the only lunch serving from the Global Kitchen window, but watch for more action from this side of town and this particular commissary, including from Denver’s Ethiopian Food Truck.
If you go: Che Tano at R Bazaar’s Global Kitchen serves from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at 970 Yuma St. inside the Forge building. Find the menu and order ahead at rbazaardenver.com/theglobalkitchen.
