Courtesy Jaclyn Shyptycki
By Carol Ann Conover
Veronica Agama did not arrive in the Capital Region with investors, a business plan or a commercial lease. She arrived with a laundry cart loaded with empanadas, a portable frying pan and a customer base she had built one weekend at a time in a Queens park during the height of the pandemic. Four years later, her company, Viva Empanadas, operates two locations in the Albany area and is preparing to open a third in Saratoga Springs at 26 Congress St., inside Congress Plaza.
Agama, who immigrated to New York City from Ecuador at 18 and spent more than a decade working in restaurant kitchens — from an Argentine steakhouse in Queens to fine dining near Bryant Park in Manhattan — launched Viva Empanadas when COVID-19 shuttered the restaurant industry and left her without income and with two young sons to support. What began as a way to generate extra cash evolved, within a few years, into a multilocation restaurant business that has earned support from city officials and economic development organizations.
“Viva Empanadas is my dream,” Agama said at her Albany grand opening in August 2024. “It was years in the making. I wanted to bring all Latin flavors together under one beautiful roof with an offering that everybody can experience no matter the type of diet restrictions, the circumstance, the budget.”
The brand’s growth has been methodical. Agama first established herself at the Galleria 7 Market in Latham, where she built a following for her empanadas — each variety distinguished not only by its filling but by its dough. A corn-crusted Colombian-style empanada, a cassava-dough version that is both gluten-free and vegan, a plantain-crust offering layered with cheese: The menu reflects Agama’s years of working alongside cooks from Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Peru and Ecuador, and her conviction that Latin cuisine, in its full range, deserves a dedicated showcase.
“Latin food is diverse and really friendly to all tastes as it’s predominantly gluten free, with lots of veggies, and flavor,” Agama has said. “Across Latin America we all use the same ingredients and most of the time we make very similar dishes — we just name them very differently. I’ve carefully curated a menu that represents us all.”
In August 2024, Agama opened the full-service Viva Empanadas Latin Grill and Wine at 90 North Pearl St. in downtown Albany, transforming a vacant storefront in the former Bishop gastropub space into a 2,400-square-foot restaurant with a full bar, tapas menu and Latin cocktail program. The project received support from the Downtown Albany Retail Grant Program, administered by Capitalize Albany Corporation, which cited the opening as an example of the program’s ability to leverage new private investment in the city’s core. Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan called Viva Empanadas “a welcome new addition” and a “major boost to downtown Albany’s core and its growing strength” at the grand opening.
The Saratoga Springs location will occupy a corner unit previously used as a fish market inside Congress Plaza, adjacent to Wendy’s on Congress Street. Agama said she intends to install an outdoor patio using the building’s corner access, a parrilla-style grill visible from the dining room and a cooking surface she described as an open cooking stone traditional to Ecuador’s coastal region. The restaurant is expected to open this summer, though Agama said permitting delays have pushed the original June target and she is now aiming for late June at the earliest.
“I’m hoping it’s still for June,” she said. “But I know we’re behind already on that.” She cited a kitchen hood installation as the central permitting bottleneck, noting that contractors have told her the build-out will take about one month once permits are in hand. “Once they get the permit, they’re going to take a month to do this. And we haven’t received the permit yet.”
Saratoga Springs presents a market notably different from Albany. The city’s population of about 28,800 skews affluent — median household income exceeds $105,000, according to 2024 U.S. Census Bureau estimates — and its dining scene is oriented toward tourism and a high-spending visitor base, particularly during the summer racing season. Agama said she sees the city as an opportunity to reach an audience that has sought out her food at events and markets but lacks a nearby permanent location.
Her delivery and ordering operations run through Milio, a locally owned delivery service she said she prefers over national platforms because of its regional identity. “I think they are so far big companies and far ahead from what we do,” she said of the national competitors, adding that she was drawn to Mealeo when she spotted its pink cars making pickups at neighboring vendors in Galleria 7. Customers can also order through vivaempanadas.com, where a catering menu is available for larger events.
Agama, who now lives in Clifton Park with her two sons, ages 11 and 15, says she does not yet see herself at the top of the hill she has been climbing. “I’m always like climbing the hill,” she said. “I’m never on top of it. But what I do know is that whatever needs to be done to get it there, I’ll do that.”
Viva Empanadas’ Latham location remains open at Galleria 7 Market. The Albany full-service restaurant at 90 North Pearl St. is open Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more information, visit vivaempanadas.com.