What is more necessary after a night of clubbing than filling your stomach — newly empty of calories after giving it your all on the dance floor (or one too full of booze than is safe to drive) — by stuffing it with fatty, fried foods?
Someone who doesn’t enjoy such diversions might say a good detox. But for those who enjoy a certain kind of socializing, after-hours food choices are limited to fast food, chain pancakes and omelets or a slice of greasy cheese.
Now you can add Venezuelan dishes to the mix, with the establishment of Arempa’s in downtown Salt Lake City on State Street. It serves semi-fast-food reminiscent of burgers (albeit served between slices of fried plantain) or tacos (with various choices of meat or beans served in a corn cake). And it’s open until 3 a.m. on the weekends. Even early in the evenings, the lights are turned off and lively Latino tunes play while diners eat under string lights.
One diner came drunk one evening and returned the next night to make sure it wasn’t just the alcohol he was in love with. It wasn’t. And you shouldn’t just head there from the bar. Arempa’s — a portmanteau combining the Venezuelan-named dishes arepa and empanada — provides a better alternative to fast food, with its freshly prepared ingredients, comforting flavors and welcoming staff.
The 5-month-old restaurant is an American dream in the making. Sandy Arrieta “has been cooking for as long as I can remember,” says her daughter, Daniela Pernia. “I played every sport and joined every club and activity in high school, and she would pay for it” by making and selling arepas and empanadas.
Arrieta grew up in Colombia but raised her family in Venezuela, says Pernia. She and her children moved to the United States, where she created a cleaning company. But she kept cooking on the side and was urged to start a restaurant. In 2019, the same year she became a U.S. citizen, she found a spot for her restaurant after pulling together other owners, including her husband, a family friend and children Daniela and Erick Pernia.
“My mom spoke no English and was cooking from home and now she’s sharing her recipe with the world,” says Daniela Pernia. “It’s really awesome.”
The menu is simple, with helpful explanations of each of the four dishes. However, don’t expect it to be fast. Ordering at a counter might give you that expectation, but my orders of five items each took close to 25 minutes. Pernia says all of the food is cooked to order.
Arepas, described as Venezuela’s national bread, is made of corn flour, is like a really thick tortilla and is stuffed like a gyro. It has a potato-type texture. The bread is eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner and can be filled with any protein or vegetables.
Arempa’s offers five signature arepas, ranging from $7 to $10.50, from the sandwichlike avocado chicken salad, to what you’d find at a taco joint, including plenty of grilled steak, shredded beef or chicken or the vegetarian black beans and cheese. Or you can build your own. Options include tuna salad, ham and cheese and pulled pork. The chicken salad was good, but we loved the thick cut and tender steak in the carne asada (an Americanized version of an arepa; Pernia said they never eat carne asada arepa at home, but it’s proved popular). Like a burger, the arepas come with tomato, lettuce, ketchup and mayonnaise, with more avocado mayo and aioli available on the tables.
The fried empanadas (nearly all are $3.50) come with those same filling options. The best is the pabellon ($5), stuffed with black beans, shredded beef, cheese and plantain. It has the same ingredients as the pabellon plate (a traditional Venezuelan dish of black beans, shredded beef, rice and plantain for $12), but is contained in a soft, crunchy crust you can hold in your hand.
The cachapas dishes also have the same filling options. It’s a huge corn pancake folded in half with cheese stuffed inside. I thought the corn cake would also house the shredded beef ($10) I ordered with it, but the meat came on the side. It tasted subtly of corn, and while it was too much pancake for one sitting, it worked as a leftover with fried eggs in the morning.
Maybe the most unusual dish for Salt Lake City is the patacon, a sandwich that replaces bread with crispy fried plantains. You can choose between green (unripe) or sweet soft plantains. I recommend the sweet ones. The green are saltier and have less flavor. The plantains are twice fried and flattened and you choose from the same fillings. The grilled chicken was so-so, but the steak was delicious and benefited from the hint of sweetness of the plantains. I think you could eat it like a sandwich, since they are sold elsewhere as street food.
All the arepas and empanadas are gluten-free. And each dish provides a vegetarian or vegan option. There’s also a separate small vegan menu. The Life Bowl ($7.99) was small but packed with flavorful, stewed garbanzo beans amid slices of arepa and sweet, grilled onions.
The restaurant offers canned sodas, including the Venezuelan cola Frescolita, and coffee. For dessert, Arempa’s sells small cups of marquesa ($4.99) sold by Dolce Utah, made of layers of biscuits and cream in flavors like lemon and dulce de leche. There also are tequenos filled with chocolate ($1.50 for one and $15 for 12), which is a must try.
Clubbing, of course, is optional.
Arempa’s Venezuelan Cuisine • ★★1/2 (out of ★★★★) The owners share their Venezuelan culture in a fast(ish) food setting. Pick your corn-based vehicle — arepa, empanada, cachapa — and stuff it with taco or sandwichlike fillings.
Food • ★★1/2
Mood • ★★1/2
Service • ★1/2
Noise • 2 bells out of 4
Location • 350 S. State St., Salt Lake City; 385-301-8905.
Online • www.arempas.com.
Hours • Monday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-midnight; Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. Closed Sundays.
Children’s menu • No.
Prices • $-$$
Liquor • No.
Reservations • No.
Takeout • Yes.
Wheelchair access • Yes.
Outdoor dining • No.
On-site parking • Paid street parking.
Credit cards • Yes.