DTC restaurateur named SBA’s Business Person of the Year
BY PETER JONES
NEWS EDITOR
Lorena Cantarovici, the owner of Greenwood Village’s Maria Empanada, has been named the Colorado Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
After three years of success on South Broadway on Denver’s Antique Row, the fast-casual Argentinian eatery in DTC debuted in 2016. A third store in Aurora is expected to open later this year.
“You only see burritos, tacos, and hamburgers. I wanted to be that one that is missing,” explained the Buenos Aires-born Cantarovici, owner, and operator of all three locations.
The menu is based around the empanada, a Spanish-originated pastry dish and the national staple of Cantarovici’s homeland. Culled from her mother Maria’s homegrown recipes—hence the restaurant’s name—the owner prides herself on filling her all-purpose empanadas with the freshest meats and vegetables she can find.
Although Cantarovici has adapted her recipes to a fast-casual marketplace, she is quick to emphasize that a quickness of service is about the only aspect of Maria Empanada that is not authentic to her native Argentina.
“We are people who love to talk. We love to wait,” she said. “At lunch over there—even in business—it can take two hours, easy.”
Maria Empanada is located at 8000 E. Belleview Ave.
A U.S. Small Business Person of the Year will be announced at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on April 30 in celebration of National Small Business Week.
