Empanada queen Jezabel Careaga is returning to Fitler Square with a cafe and restaurant
Jezabel Careaga opened her first cafe at 26th and Pine Streets in 2010. After years in West Philadelphia, she has a new storefront on the way to 24th Street near South.
Chef Jezabel Careaga is returning to the neighborhood where her bakery and restaurant first took root 16 years ago.
Careaga, the Argentine-born chef behind Jezabel’s, plans to open a new location in early summer at 617 S. 24th St., between South and Bainbridge Streets, bringing her signature empanadas, alfajores, pastries, and vegetable-forward cooking back to Fitler Square.
“For me, this is literally a homecoming,” said Careaga, who opened Gavin’s Cafe at 26th and Pine Streets in 2010 and renamed it Jezabel’s in 2016. She’s also had a shop in West Philadelphia since 2018.
The new 24th Street location, on the ground floor of a new building, is designed as a hybrid bakery and restaurant. Careaga said it will have an open kitchen, a front area for coffee, pastries, and empanadas, and a 24-seat dining room for table service. A rear garden is also planned. She is working with Rival Bros. for coffee service.
The menu, inspired by Argentina’s bodegón and fonda traditions, will still focus on empanadas. But Careaga said the larger kitchen will also give her room to expand into plated dishes, including steak, pasta, small plates, and the vegetable-focused cooking that has until now appeared mostly at private events, dinners, and classes.
The shop is expected to open first as a seven-day-a-week bakery and lunch destination, with dinner service to follow.
The opening marks a return for Careaga, who closed the original Fitler Square location at the end of 2018. A year before closing, she opened a smaller shop at 208 S. 45th St., while continuing pop-ups and farmers markets.
“When I had to leave Fitler Square, it happened really quickly, and it was very sad,” Careaga said. “Before I left, I kept saying, ‘I can’t wait to come back.’”
Careaga said the new site also reconnects her with the rhythms of a neighborhood she knows well. She cited the area’s walkability and family orientation as major draws, describing it as the kind of place where neighbors know one another and children feel comfortable stopping in after school.
“There’s a lot of community,” she said. “I know a lot of the kids on a first-name basis.”
Before the opening, Jezabel’s will hold a series of preopening events, beginning with a bake sale outside the new space on Sunday, March 15, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until sold out. The event will feature empanadas and preview items from the forthcoming menu. Careaga said the West Philadelphia location will remain open and that the business will continue its current farmers market commitments.
Careaga grew up in Palpalá, Argentina, outside San Salvador de Jujuy, and learned the foundations of Argentine cooking from her mother and grandmother. After studying hotel management in Córdoba and earning an MBA from Universidad Siglo XXI, she moved to Miami. While managing a hotel, she met a business traveler from Philadelphia who told her about the available property at 26th and Pine.
“This is the next chapter,” Careaga said. “It’s not going to be the same way that we started, and I think there’s a lot of room for that. That’s what excites me.”