Eat Up Havana: New Latin Spot Stars Fresh-Baked Empanadas

Over a decade ago, former Westword food editor Mark Antonation began his food-writing career by eating his way up Federal Boulevard. Now, we’re turning our attention to another vibrant culinary corridor.

The four-plus-mile stretch of Havana Street between Dartmouth and Sixth Avenue in Aurora is home to the most diverse array of international cuisine available in the metro area. From restaurants and markets to take-and-go shops and stands, food lovers of nearly any ethnicity or interest can find a place that will remind them of home or open new culinary doors. In Eat Up Havana, Antony Bruno will visit them all, one by one, week by week. Check out his previous stops.

This week, Bruno visits Orejano Casual Latin Cuisine.

Denver is no stranger to the South American empanadas. It’s become an easy-to-find grab-and-go snack available within a short distance of anywhere you may be in the metro area, including the airport. 

But if you ever find yourself at Orejano Casual Latin Cuisine on Aurora’s Havana Street, you’ll soon discover that there are empanadas, and then there are empanadas. 

The minute you walk into the former SteveO’s Pizza & Ribs space, you’ll see the difference before you even taste it. Unlike nearly every other empanada joint in the city, you won’t find a glass display case piled with the backed hand pies here. That’s because each order is made fresh, which makes a bigger difference than you might think. 

“We make it all from scratch,” says owner Marcelo Alvariza. He and his wife, Maria Griselda Aguero, are near permanent fixtures behind the counter and in the kitchen. “When they just put it in the front under the heat… they’re good, but after an hour or two, something happens. All the cheese melts to the bottom, and it turns a kind of gray color. I don’t like the flavor then. So I prefer to do it all in the kitchen so they come fresh to your plate.”

Sure, we expect food freshly baked to be better than something sitting under a heat lamp for hours. But the empanadas here feel like an entirely different dish. The pastry crust is light and flaky, just thick enough to support the filling, but not so much that it gets doughy or distracts from the flavor of the filling. Speaking of which, each little pocket is packed full, with no “settling” or corners cut in the portion size. 

At $5.45 each, there’s not much holding you back from trying as many options as you care to from the wall-sized menu. The Criolla beef is an absolute must-order: a rich and savory beef stew with red pepper, onions, and a “special seasoning” that hits just right. Other popular (if less traditional) options include the steak and jalapeno as well as the lamb. Chipotle chicken, sweet corn and bell pepper along with a blue cheese options with caramelized onions round out the hit list. 

An order of three feels like the perfect portion, and will come with a free side of sauce (the chimichurri is always a good bet). 

But empanadas aren’t all they offer at Orejano. Alvariza has stacked the menu with old favorites from Uruguay, where he grew up. Many of the options offer an interesting fusion of Latin American and Italian cuisines. That’s because nearly half the country’s population is of Italian descent, including Alvariza’s grandmother on his father’s side (who hails from Sicily). Italian influences appear in such menu categories as the Milanese sandwiches (breaded and fried eggplant, meat, or chicken), as well as the caprese empanada and the blue cheese empanada (which is actually 70 percent provolone cheese).

“That’s like our fast food in Uruguay,” he says. “But over there, there’s a lot more pasta. A lot of pasta. I always loved to cook with my grandmother from Italy. Every Sunday, we were eating pasta at home, and I would help her cook with my father.”

In fact, Alvariza’s initial goal was to open a restaurant in Uruguay with his father, who passed before that dream could become a reality. After years of working other jobs that left him uninspired, he finally pulled the trigger and opened Orejano, a moniker that was his father’s nickname. 

An orejano is like a kind of “free spirit” in Uruguay. It comes from the term given to unbranded cattle that are ownerless. “It’s a person that has a strong personality and treats everyone the same no matter if they’re rich or poor,” Alvariza says. “He was that type of person. Everyone was welcome at our house.”

Once you’ve sampled your way through the empanadas, be sure to check out the wide variety of sandwiches, especially the Chivito — the national dish of Uruguay. This protein bomb consists of grilled steak with ham, bacon and a fried egg, smothered in mozzarella and sliced olives. The tomato and lettuce might make you feel less guilty, but they really just make it even messier and harder to eat. It’s glorious. 

The rest of the menu consists of platters (basically the same as the sandwiches, sans bun), grilled chicken, and desserts, the latter of which includes a chaja — a soft sponge cake with peaches and topped with a crunchy meringue. 

Come summer, Alvariza hopes to set up a grill out on the patio for barbecues featuring beef, chicken, blood sausage and more. But don’t wait until then to try this newer addition to Havana’s diverse restaurant scene. Just be sure to bring an appetite. 

Orejano Casual Latin Cuisine is located at 800 South Havana Street in Aurora and is open daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., closing at 5 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, visit orejanoco.com.   

All the previous Eat Up Havana stops:

• Old Town Hot Pot
• Leezakaya
• Chutney Indian Cuisine
• El Tequileno
• Milkroll
• Shin Myung Gwan Korean BBQ
• Watan Restaurant & Bakery
• Las Fajitas
• Mr. Tang
• Nana’s Dim Sum & Dumplings
• Yemen Grill
• Tofu House
• Sushi Katsu
• Coco Loco
• Ali Restaurant & Bakery
• Thank Sool Pocha
• Taqueria Corona
• Hanyang Wang Jokbal
• Coffee Story
• Tofu Story
• Havana Street Night Markets
• Seoul BBQ & Hot Pot (the Hot Pot)
• Seoul BBQ & Hot Pot (the BBQ)
• Pho 75
• Yong Gung
• Chopsticks A GoGo
• Angry Chicken
• L Cafe & Food Court
• Gangnam GT Lounge & Karaoke
• Katsu Ramen
• Dae Gee
• Snowl
• Chef Liu’s Kitchen
• Piramides Mexican Restaurant
• Nile Ethiopian
• +57 Bar & Restaurante
• Il Forno di Tutti
• Ifka Cafe
• Maandeeq Restaurant & Cafe
• La Sazon de Irene
• U&I BBQ & Karaoke Bar
• Pho 99
• Mariscos Los 3 Rios