My photographer Harry and I sat down this past Friday to try the dinner Restaurant Week menu at Happy Pappi’s, a Venezuelan arepas bar and restaurant on 252 Chenango St. that just opened this past October.
We were welcomed into the restaurant by Luis Carrillo, the founder and owner. Carrillo immigrated from Venezuela in 2015, so all of his recipes are authentic from his home island, Margarita. Happy Pappi’s menu says that the restaurant “uses family recipes passed down from generations of Venezuelan Abuelitas,” and that Carrillo opened the restaurant after realizing the need for high quality, reasonably priced food in Binghamton, as well as job training for local people wanting to enter or reenter the workforce. The restaurant is modestly sized and extends back, with a hammock in the front window, a bar on the side of the restaurant and images of beaches projected onto the walls. We sat at one of the tall tables with barstools on the right and talked to Carrillo about what we should order.
From talking to Carrillo about the menu, you can tell that he puts time and thought into all of his dishes and sauces. Carillo introduced us to 3 homemade sauces — traditional mojito, which is a mild spicy pepper sauce, guasacaca, a creamy sauce made of avocado and cilantro and a third sauce that he has invented called besitos de alba, made from peaches, mango and spicy peppers. He explained that he sources the restaurant’s butter and queso Guyanese, a smooth Venezuelan cheese used in many of his dishes, from the local Sullivan County Dairy Farm.
For $25, Happy Pappi’s dinner restaurant week menu allows you to choose one first course, a second course of any arepa on the menu, and a dessert. For our starter, we ordered the yuca fries and the plantains. The yuca fries were crispy and the subtle and nutty flavor of yucca made them perfect to dip in the three sauces. The plantains were perfectly cooked, sweet, warm and dusted with feta cheese, which Carrillo explained offers a savory balance to the sweetness of the plantains.
For our second course, I ordered the happy pelua arepa and Harry ordered the reina pepiada. Each arepa features the traditional gluten-free cornmeal cake that is crispy outside and fluffy inside, with some of the inside scooped, fresh butter lathered on either side and stuffed with fresh meats, vegetables and cheeses. The happy pelua arepa was bursting with juicy shredded beef, sauteed garlic, onion, peppers and ripe tomatoes. The beef melted in your mouth and the balance of the intense, savory flavors of the filling and the softness of the fresh corn arepa was perfect. Harry’s reina pepiada was an arepa filled with Venezuelan chicken salad and avocado, so the texture of the filling was more smooth and deliciously fresh because of the avocado. I alternated pouring each of the three sauces across the top of my arepa while eating, and all three offered a new flavor dimension that was delicious.
For dessert, we ordered the tres leches cake and the quesillo. The tres leches cake, a white cake soaked in three milks, served in a dollop of sweet milk and topped with fluffy meringue, was moist and the perfect amount sweet. The quesillo, a traditional Venezuelan dessert made with eggs, milk and sugar, was similar in taste and texture to a flan. This desert was dense and sweeter than the tres leches, had flavors of caramel and was addictingly smooth and sweet.
As Carrillo warned in the beginning, by 5:30/6 p.m., more groups of customers started to steadily enter the restaurant, and by 7 p.m., groups were waiting by the door waiting to be seated, and the bar was filled. The restaurant truly felt intimate, and like a community gathering place. Carrillo’s warm energy and sociability make everyone feel comfortable, and as if they are getting an individualized dining experience. At the beginning of the night, when I asked Carrillo what time they closed, he said usually 9 p.m., but it depends on how he feels and his customers feel. He explained that the night before, a group of customers was at the bar late having fun, and he was having fun, so they stayed open until 10 or 11 p.m. When we left Happy Pappi’s, Carrillo’s wife, who runs the restaurant alongside him, stopped by our table to ask us how the food was. Before leaving, we waved to Carrillo, who was behind the bar, excitedly talking to customers.
Be sure to stop by Happy Pappi’s for delicious authentic Venezuelan food and a true community feel! It is open Wednesday to Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 252 Chenango St., or you can call (607) 765-1761 for delivery.