The second time Chef Erica Sanders tasted an empanada, it was in Costa Rica. Twenty years ago, while she was studying Spanish, she ordered one from a bakery on her way to school. The memory of eating it reminded her of Proust's madeleines.
After returning to the U.S., she found empanadas hard to come by. Sanders decided to learn how to make them herself. “I started hosting empanada tastings with friends,” she says. Since then, she's made a variety of empanadas, some great, some not so great. This lengthy research and development process influenced how she makes empanadas at her first brick-and-mortar restaurant, 9 Julio Empanada Kitchen.
Sanders started selling empanadas at farmers markets and the Alameda Point Antique Fair, and eventually began catering. Though Costa Rican empanadas remain her inspiration, 9 Julio's flavors are all-Latin. When she started, customers from Bolivia and Colombia would sometimes bring seasonings from their home countries to incorporate into recipes. “I take inspiration from wherever the empanada is from,” the chef says.
One customer described 9 Julio's empanadas as “a pocketful of goodness.” While her pocket pies may be unique to Latin America, many cultures around the world make similar ones. “You've probably had a pasty or a calzone or a dumpling,” Sanders says. “But you're not going to get an empanada at the taqueria on the corner. Empanadas are a little more unique and are better suited to being eaten with one hand.”
For Sanders, a good empanada starts with the dough. “We roll out our dough as thin as possible so that it's the perfect crust to encase the filling,” she says. “We pride ourselves on making an empanada dough that's so thin and flaky that an Argentinian couple asked if we had a special oven because they'd never had a crust that was that crispy without frying.”
While most places deep fry their empanadas, 9 Julio's bakes them in the oven. Sanders' recipes include up to 25 different flavors, both savory and sweet, which rotate on and off the menu seasonally. Current vegetarian offerings include mushroom and onion empanadas and spinach and cheese empanadas.
“Now that we have more summer vegetables available, we're really looking forward to selling humitas, or corn empanadas,” she says. “We take fresh corn off the cob, saute it with onions and peppers, and add cheese. It's one of our most popular flavors.”
Chimichurri sauce, made with fresh herbs, is the traditional dip served with empanadas, but 9 Julio also makes four other sauces: aji amarillo for plantain chips, salsa verde, avocado jalapeno and chipotle ranch for sweet potato chips. “Use whatever sauce you like to dip the empanadas in,” she adds.
9 Julio officially opened in early April, though Sanders found the location for the restaurant in 2019. A series of construction delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to extended wait times.
“We started building when lockdown began so we spent a lot of time reconfiguring the layout as we had it set up as a shared space,” Saunders said. “Big family tables were going out of fashion so we had to rethink the space and make it possible for people to get food by adding things like a takeaway window.”
During those five years in limbo, Sanders missed being in the kitchen and customers kept asking for empanadas. Despite the wait, the chef felt that in the long run, “what we were aiming for, what we were literally building in terms of the restaurant, was going to be worth it in the end.”
Now that the kitchen is up and running, Sanders' menu has expanded to include Latin American comfort food. “In addition to empanadas, we also have Peruvian roast chicken, chimichurri steak, and lots of sides and salads,” she says. “You can order a full course meal or you can order the empanadas.”
9 Julio Empanada Kitchen, Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-9pm, 5239 Claremont Ave. Ste A, Oakland. 510.698.9535. 9julio.com.
