Your Empanada Says SCX on It. That's the Flavor.

Most to-go boxes in this town come with a mystery. You get home, open the lid, and play a round of "which one was the chicken." At The Empanada Girl, the empanadas tell you. Each one has a few letters pressed right into the crust.

SCX is spicy chicken. VSQ is curried sweet potato and butternut squash. 4C is four cheese, which is the best abbreviation in Sarasota and I won't hear otherwise.

Why the crust has a code

The heating instructions page says it plainly: "All Empanadas are stamped with a code so you can determine your flavor without cutting them open." There's a downloadable flavor key that lays the whole system out.

The backstory is on Stef's story page. Stefania Fochi, the Argentine-born chef behind the business, started at the Downtown Sarasota Farmers Market in February 2010 with one table, one toaster oven and seven traditional Argentine flavors. For more than seven years she sealed every single empanada by hand, and each flavor had its own hand-crimped shape. Then she brought in a semi-automatic sealing machine to save her arms, and it presses letters into the crust. She calls it a win-win. Seven flavors became 21, and the shapes became a code.

Also from that page: it took her three years to get the beef recipe where it is now. Three years! I have owned a pair of sneakers for less time than that beef recipe was in development.

The key, abridged

From the flavor key on her site, the ones worth memorizing:

• BF beef, SBF spicy beef
• CHX chicken, SCX spicy chicken
• HC ham and cheese, STK steak and cheese, LA lamb, MED Mediterranean beef
• SP spinach, 4C four cheese, MAR margherita, CHO cheese and onion
• BK bacon, sausage, egg and cheese, BC bacon, egg and cheese, VBK veggie breakfast
• VAL Argentine lentil, VMU onions and mushrooms, VCP curry veggie chickpea, VSQ curried sweet potato and butternut squash
• GY guava and cheese

Notice that anything starting with V is vegan or veggie. That's a real system. Somebody thought about this.

The online order menu has picked up newer flavors since the key was printed, including a humita (sweet corn), a spicy chorizo breakfast and three more desserts: dulce de leche nut crunch, brownie Nutella bliss and cinnamon apple crumble. They'll have their own letters. Ask at the counter and add them to your own private notes like I'm about to.

What's in them

The beef is "traditional Argentine style," per that menu: ground beef, onion, raisins, olives and hard-boiled egg. The lamb is listed as "a Lebanese style favorite" with lamb, beef, green onion and fresh lemon juice. The steak and cheese is "inspired by Cheesesteaks," and her story page calls it and the breakfast empanada "legendary" crowd favorites.

The homepage says the dough is made weekly from scratch and every empanada is baked, not fried. The FAQ suggests one as a snack and two as a meal for an adult. I respect a business that tells you the serving size and then lets you ignore it.

Her product list prices the regular flavors at $6.50 each and gluten-free at $7.75. There's also a chimichurri by the jar, and the order menu pitches it for dipping, as a sandwich spread, a meat marinade or a salad dressing. So, on everything.

Taking some home

The code really earns its keep once a box lands in your freezer. Per the heating page: they keep 5 days in the fridge or 3 months frozen. Bake refrigerated ones at 450 degrees for 6 to 10 minutes. With frozen ones, don't preheat; they go in when you turn the oven on, for 15 to 20 minutes. The air fryer runs 350 degrees for 4 to 5 minutes refrigerated, 8 minutes frozen.

My favorite pro tip on the page: to check if they're ready, flip one over and touch the underbelly. Very hands-on.

Where to find her

• The café: 4141 S. Tamiami Trail, Suite 13, Sarasota, formerly her parents' Peperonata Pasta and Empanadas, which she took over in April 2025. The locations page says to check her Google listing for current café hours, or call (941) 870-2729.
• Sunday: her locations page lists the Farmers' Market at Lakewood Ranch, Sundays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Waterside Place, and the market's own page says Mylon Shamble is playing this Sunday, Oct. 11.
• Saturdays: the Downtown Sarasota Farmers Market, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., where the whole thing started. Today's is done, so next Saturday.
• The truck: it's been running since September 2023. Her socials (Instagram, Facebook) post its weekly schedule.

Two more things on the calendar. Bitty Bagels has a pop-up at the café on Friday, Oct. 16, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. And Stefania is teaching a lasagna and manicotti workshop there on Friday, Oct. 23, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. No experience needed, space is limited, and you register by calling the café.

Want sweet ones too? Palmetto's Dutch Empanadas are the dessert side of the family. And this morning's five-pickup-spot sourdough is still the most organized bread I've ever seen. Until today. Now it's tied with a crust that has letters on it.

— Marina