Pa’ Paraguaná

If you walk into Kissimmee’s Pa’ Paraguaná restaurant, you’ll be confronted with a floor-to-ceiling wall of empanada types: 59 of them, to be exact.

There’s mechada, or shredded beef. Nutella and cheese. Baby shark and fried sweet plantains.

But the restaurant is more than a museum of stuffed pastry. These Venezuelan empanadas are made with precision, love, and sazón.

The name is a reference to the Paraguaná peninsula on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, mere miles from Aruba. So expect empanadas stuffed with seafood like chipi chipi, baby clams. July’s team stews the seafood in delicious broths with sofrito, a cooking base of fresh ingredients like garlic, cilantro, and chives used throughout the region.

Before they moved to Kissimmee, July (pronounced like “Julie”) and her husband Nestor Lugo-Artusa lived in Paraguaná with their three children before moving to Orlando in 2014. They both loved to cook: Nestor's specialty was savory foods; July’s was baking.

When Covid-19 broke out in 2020, July and Nestor converted a small pizzeria in Kissimmee into an empanada shop with four tables. Their children, all with their own careers at the time, joined the business. 

Then and today, many of their customers are Venezuelan. “We have people who have broken into tears, literally,” July said. “Because it reminds them of the flavors of their homeland.”

In contrast to the wheat of Dominican empanadas, and the yellow corn of Colombian empanadas, Venezuelan empanadas are generally made of white corn. Pa’ Paraguaná makes their dough thin and crunchy, with their own seasonings and “just a dot” of sweetness, Nestor said.

Nestor describes cazón, or baby shark, as a specialty of the Paraguaná peninsula. The peninsula is also known for the herds of goats that roam the island and goat meat also makes it into Pa’Paraguána’s empanadas. The eatery also makes a mean empanada de hueva, or stewed roe.

You’ll also find Venezuelan fillings with roots outside of Paraguaná, like the domino (black beans and cheese) or the pabellón (beans, shredded beef, and sweet plantains). 

 The Lugo-Artusa clan has also been inspired by the U.S. food scene. The Hawaiana is stuffed with ham, cheese, and pineapple; the Manzana with apple and cinnamon.

Then there are the sweet empanadas, which include the Lechosa, a Venezuelan sweet papaya empanada, and the Arequipe, a Colombian caramel and cheese empanada.

July is the mastermind behind those sweet fillings and the desserts  “We’re very used to having a dessert after a meal,” July said, referring to Venezuelans. Pa’ Paraguaná prepares two Venezuelan classics: tres leches cake and quesillo, a Venezuelan flan that includes rum.

Having only two dessert options may come as a relief for eaters otherwise bewildered by choice. 

When an order arrives, customers can identify the fillings with a sort of culinary Morse code—dashes and dots that are marked on the wall at the restaurant’s entrance. The codex of an empanada lover’s dream.