Food
They Call Them Empanadas. They Are Not Savory. At All.
Dutch Empanadas in Palmetto fries glazed fruit hand pies — blueberry cream cheese, guava, Bavarian chocolate — Mon–Fri only. $4.50 each. Bring cash for dessert, leave the hot sauce in the car.
Dutch Empanadas opened at 704 10th St. W. in Palmetto after a tomato-company CFO found Dutch fried pies on a Tennessee farm trip and decided Florida needed the same thing under a name locals would actually pronounce.
Per the Bradenton Herald, Paul Hoker (Pacific Tomato Growers), co-owner Matt Guthrie, and general manager Craig Kramer rebranded the Tennessee-style fried pie as an "empanada" because more people here know that word. Hoker’s own quote: folks see empanada and think savory. Correct. That is the trap. These are dessert.
Fruit, glaze, no chairs
Kramer and his wife Brooke handcraft the 5-ounce pies. Flavors from the Herald: apple, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, red raspberry, cherry, peach, guava and mango. Every fruit except mango can take cream cheese. There is also Bavarian chocolate and chocolate-and-Bavarian-cream. Dough gets rolled, fried, glazed. You walk out smelling like a county fair that somehow landed next to the tomato trucks.
Price: $4.50 each, $50 a dozen. Hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.. No seating yet. Weekend pilgrims: plan ahead or cry into your Saturday coffee. Phone is 941-226-9909; orders also run through DutchEmpanadas.com.
Outside, Palmetto artist Matt McAllister painted a mural of a smiling Dutch empanada in a hammock between palms. I respect the brand honesty. The pastry itself is already doing the bit.
I am not saying you have to drive across the river for a blueberry cream-cheese fried pie on a Tuesday. I am saying if you show up expecting carnitas and get glaze, that is on the word "empanada," not on Palmetto. If you need actual savory after, Ed's Tavern West is still over on Manatee Ave. with the burgers that started the westbound habit.
— Marina
