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Founder Roy Pelaez says rising expenses and more cautious customers forced the homegrown chain down to four locations
Island Empanada, one of Long Island’s first restaurants devoted entirely to empanadas, is getting smaller.
The chain closed its company-owned Rocky Point store for good on Sept. 8, just after Labor Day. Its Shirley location, which a franchisee has run, closes permanently at the end of business on Wednesday.
The Torres family, which runs the Shirley franchise, announced the closing Wednesday in a post on the “Shirley and the Mastics” community Facebook group. The family said the restaurant would stay open until its last empanadas sold out.
In the post, the family thanked customers, staff and the surrounding community, and said their support had turned the restaurant into “a true home over the years.”
This leaves four Island Empanada restaurants open — in Merrick, Commack, Medford and Ronkonkoma.
Founder Roy Pelaez told GLI the economy forced the downsizing. His expenses have risen, labor included, he said. Meanwhile, customers facing their own higher cost of living are watching what they spend and dining out less.
“It’s a challenging market right now,” Pelaez said.
Pelaez opened the first Island Empanada in Ronkonkoma in May 2011. He built it on Puerto Rican-style recipes at a time when no other Long Island restaurant specialized in empanadas.
“We were the only game in town,” he said.
That’s changed. Pelaez said about 18 other empanada-focused restaurants have opened since he started, and each one takes a small share of his business.
Still, he said, the remaining four stores are going strong. Island Empanada has sold more than six million empanadas since it opened.
Island Empanada storefront in Rocky Point.
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