Venezuelan pop-up Carpano Kitchen will open its first St. Pete restaurant this fall

A modern Venezuelan meals belief known for its stuffed arepas and empanadas will soon originate its first brick-and-mortar restaurant in St. Pete.

Carúpano Kitchen plans to originate by mid-November at 1040 4th Dual carriageway North, a 1,070-square-foot place aside of residing previously occupied by a catering kitchen and Metropolis Canning Company earlier than that.

Andrea Osorio debuted Carúpano Kitchen at Foodie Labs, a commercial kitchen incubator within the Warehouse Arts District, in 2025 at the side of her mother, Diann Cedeño, and companion, Lauren Haley.

The menu centers on arepas, naturally gluten-free Venezuelan corn cakes which is doubtless to be grilled or fried, sliced originate, and stuffed with meats, cheeses, seafood, and vegetables.

Osorio acknowledged the contemporary restaurant will retain Carúpano Kitchen’s core recipes while including contemporary, healthy alternate solutions for the lunch crowd.

“There’s hundreds of adjustments coming, nonetheless general it’s the identical menu and recipes,” Osorio acknowledged in a conversation with St. Pete Rising. “It’ll exact be an elevated version that caters to this contemporary place aside.”

For somebody attempting an arepa for the first time, Osorio recommends La Pelúa, which is beefy of tiring-cooked shredded beef and gouda cheese.

Varied offerings encompass La Reina Pepiada with avocado rooster salad; La Tropical with candy plantains, avocado, and Venezuelan cheeses; and La de Chicharrón, a fried arepa made with pork belly within the dough and stuffed with queso de mano.

Osorio’s accepted is La Carupanera, which parts Venezuelan chorizo and morcilla, or blood sausage, topped with tomatoes and garlic-cilantro sauce.

The restaurant moreover serves gluten-free empanadas stuffed with beef, rooster, cheese, seafood, or cazón, which is marinated shark meat.

The restaurant is named for Carúpano, a shrimp fishing town on Venezuela’s soar the place aside Osorio’s grandmother grew up and operated an arepa restaurant, at the side of her mother and aunts serving to within the kitchen as young of us.

The restaurant become within the destroy short-lived, nonetheless cooking remained central to the family.

Osorio acknowledged making ready Venezuelan meals offers her a device to share that history with customers.

“After I cook for folks, I’m bringing with me the ways that my mother, aunts, and grandmother cooked for me after I become a shrimp one,” Osorio acknowledged. “I’m able to give a phase of my entire world to somebody.”

Osorio become born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, and moved to the United States on my own at 17 by strategy of a pupil trade program in Ohio.

She later built a with regards to 12-year career in gross sales earlier than becoming burned out and taking a destroy from corporate work in 2025.

All the device by strategy of that time, she spent extra intentional time at the side of her mother, and their conversations on the entire returned to a longtime belief: opening a restaurant collectively.

“I love cooking and I love hosting and I love feeding of us,” Osorio acknowledged. “That’s indubitably one of my perfect passions, sharing a phase of my culture by strategy of Venezuelan meals.”

Osorio and her companion moved to St. Pete about 5 years ago after purchasing for a extra LGBTQ-pleasant voice to dwell in Florida. The metropolis has since change into the voice the place aside they sold their first house, got married, and started their first industrial.

Foodie Labs offered a lower-possibility voice for the team to take a look at the belief earlier than committing to a worn restaurant rent and buildout.

Early foot web thunder online visitors become tiring, nonetheless social-media movies and pop-usaa. breweries and markets helped customers view Carúpano Kitchen.

“After we started doing pop-ups, that’s when we in fact learned ourselves as a industrial and our identity,” Osorio acknowledged. “We didn’t dangle to attend for folks to come to us.”

As industrial picked up over the previous couple of months, the team started brooding a pair of meals trailer earlier than the 4th Dual carriageway North place aside of residing became available.

The weak canning and catering place aside of residing already had a commercial hood, plumbing, and sinks, allowing Carúpano Kitchen to handbook sure of some of essentially the most costly substances of a restaurant buildout.

Osorio acknowledged the industrial is meant to welcome diners with a huge vary of tastes and dietary needs. Besides to meat and seafood dishes, the menu entails vegetarian and vegan alternate solutions, and the arepas and empanadas are naturally gluten-free.

“I are seeking to be a voice the place aside everyone eats,” Osorio acknowledged. “I need everyone to genuinely feel ecstatic attempting one thing contemporary.”

Once Carúpano Kitchen’s contemporary place aside opens in mid-November, the Foodie Labs place aside will discontinuance.

Guarantee to prepare Carúpano Kitchen on Fb and Instagram to contend with up to this level on ample opening plans, contemporary menu objects, and further.