The best thing I ate this week: gluten-free empanadas at Sazón 2 Go

Judith Suzarra-Campbell is an empanada force of undeniable joy and survival. Her half-moon handpies of crisp masa dough are filled with such an array of Venezuelan flavors, from cumin-scented chicken guiso to tangy pork with capers and bay to the classic Domino combo of black beans and cheese, I’d make a special trip to her farm market stand, Sazón 2 Go, even if they weren’t gluten-free. (They are, in fact, perfect for the celiac in my family).

But those empanadas, a tradition learned as a child from her mother and grandmother in the Caribbean coastal city of Puerto La Cruz, have also been a lifeline to Suzarra-Campbell and her husband Robert Campbell, who lost their much-loved Venezuelan restaurant, Sazón, during the pandemic after 18 years on Spring Garden Street. They held on as long as they could, doing takeout for a while, paying their longtime employees until eventually deciding their space could not reopen for inside dining due to smoke damage from some upstairs tenants. But Suzarra-Campbell soon found support for her next chapter in the Sisterly Love Collective, whose citywide fairs showcasing women-owned food businesses got her going again, this time on the market scene focusing almost exclusively on empanadas.

“Everybody was suffering back in 2020, but it was so beautiful to find this group of women working together, supporting each other to keep going,” she says.

After early stints at pop-up markets like Herman’s and Riverwards, then a foothold at her first farmers’ market in East Falls, Suzarra-Campbell jumped full-time this past February into the farm market circuit with both the Food Trust and Farm To City. She currently sells at seven markets a week, sometimes attending two simultaneously with Robert (a.k.a. the Chocolate Alchemist) manning the other location. Both stands sell hot cups of his super intense, handmade bean-to-cup sipping cocoa. Suzarra-Campbell, meanwhile, is now producing up to 800 empanadas a week at a commissary, with six different flavors made fresh daily.

“I never thought that I would be making just empanadas and being ok with just that,” says Suzarra-Campbell, whose once expansive 25-item restaurant menu would take her 12 hours a day to cook. She still makes the salsa, juices, and quesillo flans, as well as the occasional arepa or cachapa special that shouldn’t be missed. But her empanada magic is what put Sazón back in the public eye again and has fueled Suzarra-Campbell’s comeback in a turn she happily describes as ironic.

“I went to school to be an accountant!” she says, noting she abandoned that career when she married Robert and moved to the States. “But pretty much my whole family are cooks. And I’m proud to have introduced this city many years ago to traditional Venezeulan cuisine. I feel very fulfilled.”

Empanadas, $8 each, Sazón 2Go. Check Instagram for market schedule, but regularly present at markets in East Falls, Rittenhouse Square, Clark Park, Fairmount, Northern Liberties, Dickinson, and Media.