Don Pablo's Kitchen & Bakeshop, the Chilean empanada shop that was so popular that it was sold on Tock, the platform used by high-end restaurants like Alinea to sell food, has closed in Uptown. Founder Pablo Soto told Eater that he is looking for a location in the suburbs.
Don Pablo's, named after Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet and activist Pablo Neruda, closed on Dec. 31, just over a month shy of its two-year anniversary at 1007 W. Argyle St. “Our lease has expired; [we] I have decided not to renew,” Soto wrote in a text message. “Uptown just wasn't the right location for us, so we're working on moving to the North Shore.”
Oddly enough, a move to the Chicago suburbs (Soto hinted at Wilmette in an Instagram comment) would bring Don Pablo's story full circle. That's because Soto and his wife, Julie Morrow-Soto, originally launched Bake Shop as a virtual storefront in May 2021. Glenview. They even intended to open up a permanent location in Evanston until they discovered that the space they had chosen required far more renovation than expected. That incident led the couple to move uptown, where they opened Don Pablo's in February 2022 in Asia-on-Argyle, a busy corridor with a large Vietnamese population in the neighborhood.
Chicago's hospitality scene is rich with empanada options, with top-notch interpretations of regional varieties such as Colombian, Venezuelan, Argentine, Belizean, and Filipino. But after Rapa Nui in Irving Park closed in 2012, it became difficult to find chili empanadas at local restaurants. Chilean empanadas are larger and more oblong than their South American counterparts, and both baked and fried versions are eaten throughout the country.
Stay tuned for more news on Don Pablo's new suburban store.
