From the heart of South America to the Golden Heart City, the Carrasco family is sharing their Bolivian culture by bringing empanadas to Fairbanks.
When Rosa Brown and Javier Gonzalo Carrasco were growing up in La Paz, Bolivia, it was a tradition to get salteñas, a sweet and savory empanada, while running errands with their families on Saturdays.
“We love empanadas and they’re a huge deal in our country,” Javier said.
Rosa’s uncle came to Fairbanks to play Bolivian music at the Midnight Sun Festival in the 1990s. Her parents and two brothers soon moved to Fairbanks. Rosa quickly fell in love with the area after visiting twice.
The economic and political unrest in Bolivia motivated the family to leave Bolivia and move to Fairbanks in 2000. Rosa and Javier said they were looking for a better future for their two children, Fiorella and Nick.
“This is home for us now,” Rosa said.
Rosa and Javier, who are architects by trade, took a job at a commercial cleaning company. In 2006, they opened their own commercial cleaning business called FIONIC Enterprise, named after their two children.
Rosa and Javier always missed the empanadas from Bolivia, and Rosa made them at their Fairbanks home.
Even though Nick and Fiorella grew up in Fairbanks, empanadas were still a big part of their lives, they said. Fiorella said they took empanadas to school as kids and their friends always wanted to trade.
Rosa and Javier said they wanted to share their culture and heritage with Fairbanks.
The family sold empanadas at festivals for about four years in the early 2000s. They made and sold empanadas at the Midnight Sun Festival in 2002. Javier and Rosa would bake and sell empanadas while Nick and Fiorella sold kool-aid.
Rosa started taking orders and delivering empanadas to customers all over town.
“Rosa was the face, of course, of empanadas,” Javier said. She became known as “Lady Empanada” in Fairbanks.
The family decided to make selling emapandas a full time business back in 2020. They purchased an Airport Way house with plans to design an extension on the back and create GR’s Empanada House.
“Our game plan was to keep the little house in front and then the shop in the back,” Javier said.
The price of building materials shot up during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the family wasn’t able to afford the extension, Rosa said.
They soon found out from Nick’s friends that the building next door that housed Marlo’s Bakery at the time was for sale. Javier said it was “fate.” The Carrasco family renovated the building and opened the Airport Way location in May 2023.
“We are a family that loves what we are doing,” Javier said. “Through our empanadas, we want to give back to the community for the beautiful time that everybody gave us here.”
The Carrasco family makes about 400 empanadas from scratch each week.
They start out by making the flour dough and filling and let them rest for several hours. Then, they fill the empanada with filling and press it close before baking.
The four flavors they always have on hand are the original, the diablo, the veggie and the cheeseburger. The cheeseburger was Nick’s idea to combine an American fast food staple with the Bolivian fast food staple.
They also make weekly special flavors, like a green empanada with spinach filling for Halloween and a turkey empanada for Thanksgiving.
“We are having so much fun,” Javier said. They said the empanadas are versatile, they can create whatever fillings they want, and are always accepting suggestions for the filling.
Fiorella said that the family likes to have fun coming up with the different flavors.
Everyone knows how to do every part of the business to provide consistency for the customers. Fiorella’s husband, John Clancy, and Nick’s fiance, Maddy Case, are also learning the ins and outs of the business.
Rosa and Fiorella said that customers feel like family to them. “We want them to have the real experience,” Rosa said.
They always serve lemonade and huckleberry iced tea. Huckleberry is one of Rosa’s favorites because it’s similar to a flavor she grew up with in Bolivia.
They switch out the lemonade flavors every week, and guava lemonade has become a customer favorite. They also sell bottled sodas. “In our country it’s a tradition to have your bottled coke with your empanadas,” Javier said.
The Carrasco family said that empanadas are perfect for every occasion, from date nights to on the go lunches to weddings. The family served cocktail empanadas filled with Alaskan smoked salmon at Fiorella’s wedding this summer.
The green sauce is modeled off of what Javier’s mother made when he was a kid. He made some changes, but kept the cilantro and garlic base.
Everybody in the family puts their sauce on the empanadas differently. Javier and Rosa dip their empanadas into the sauce while Fiorella pours the sauce on. Some people like their empanadas plain, so Rosa is always encouraging people to try the sauce. “Take one just in case,” she tells hesitant customers.
If you look carefully, you’ll see that GR is pressed into each empanada. They made roughly 400 per day. They make the flour dough and filling, let it rest, fill them, then bake them. The dough is always the same.
Central and South American music fills the kitchen and restaurant.
GR’s Empanada House won the Golden Ladle for their traditional Bolivian Fricase in the Breadline’s 40th annual Soup Off in February.
GR’s Empanada House recently shipped 200 cocktail empanadas to the Anchorage Museum for an event celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. They said it was a “huge honor.”
The Carrasco family expressed their gratitude to the Fairbanks community for supporting them. They have high hopes for the future of GR’s Empanada House. They would like to open for an additional day per week and offer more vegetarian options. Later, they’d like to offer empanadas from other countries and expand to other locations in Alaska.
Rosa and Javier have fond memories of eating empanadas in Bolivia with their families, and hope Fairbanksans make their own traditions with empanadas.
GR’s Empanada House is open 11a.m.-5p.m. Thursday, 11a.m.-5p.m. Friday and 11a.m.-4p.m. Saturday at 2034 Airport Way.