Somos Handcrafted Arepas Opens in New Haven & Shelton

So, maybe you’ve had an arepa. Eaten hot from the pan, or made into fat little sandwiches somewhat akin to a stuffed pita, the puffy, crispy, hunger-busting cornmeal cakes are the unofficial comfort food of Venezuela. Or maybe you haven’t. Somos Handcrafted Arepas wants to help with that.

Brothers Alejandro and Andres Cordito grew up in Hamden as the sons of Venezuelan parents, and started taking notice of how the everyday food they had at home, on trips to visit family in Caracas, and during Andres’ time in college in South Florida, just wasn’t apparent in Connecticut. Now, with two locations in New Haven and Shelton, they’re increasing access to this gloriously variable sandwich. 

What does that mean? I’m glad you asked! 

First: Say “ah-RAY-pah."

Second: Somos offers bowls, empanadas, and taqueños (dough-wrapped and fried cheese stick appetizers), but I go to the arepas place, I get an arepa.

Ordering is simple: choose a protein like pulled chicken, carnitas, even tofu sofrito, a cheese, if you like, and a choose-your-own-adventure of toppings, like beans, sweet plantains, pickled onion, lettuce/tomato/arugula, or jalapeños, and any sauce you like. 

Here are a few I’ve eaten on my trips to the Shelton location:

Arepa with carne machada, queso fresco, pickled red onion, lettuce, and chipotle mayo: this is one of my ideal combinations. The shredded beef is a bit like you’d find in a dish of ropa vieja, if that helps, spiced and stewed down to a savory, chewy, and deeply flavorful main attraction. I added crunchy lettuce, a bit of funk with the queso fresco, the sweet acid of the onion, and some smoke and heat with the mayo. This was a late lunch, and I went from ravenous to profoundly happy in about five minutes. You can, too.

A friend of mine went a different way, adding pork carnitas, tomato, avocado, pickled onion, black beans, and a sweet piña sauce. One: you can’t go wrong with carnitas, pineapple, and red onion. It’s an impossibility, and the arepa was packed with flavor. Two: it all may have been a bit much, and I’d blame the juicy carnitas and tomatoes for when most of the sandwich’s contents decided to make a daring escape about halfway through. Thankfully, forks are available.

The pulled chicken is another delicious choice I tried with both rosada (a mayo/ketchup special sauce hit with lemon juice and black pepper; Alejandro says it’s a favorite of his when people ask), and guasacaca: an avocado, onion, cilantro, and garlic spread I can’t stop craving. 

One last option on the menu is a Cachapa. 

“Maybe it’s something you’ve never seen or heard of, so it’s intimidating,” said Alejandro. “But it’s a sweetened ground corn batter, different from an arepa, more like a pancake you turn into a quesadilla, and eaten with a fork.”

He says traditional cachapas are just made with cheese, but the Somos concept allows for all ingredients. Customers should feel free to innovate with their imaginations, and all the flavors are designed to mix and match.

The About section on restaurant’s web site alludes to something which catches my attention, and I ask Alejandro what it means to create a place called “Somos.”

“We wanted to find a name that meant something about what this food represents here, what we stand for,” he begins. 

“My parents came here to get degrees, medicine. They planned to get an education up here and go back to live and practice. They liked it here. New Haven has always been a good food culture, it’s how and where we grew up.”

“In Venezuela, with all the turmoil going on since Chavez – the economy is ruined, people are starving, so many people left the country. We hardly know anyone there anymore, but you could see the people there marching, chanting “Somos!” (“We are!”) in the streets. ‘We are people, and we matter.’ It means a lot.”

“Here, the reception has been excellent at both spots,” he says. “Arepas were more familiar to the New Haven crowd, but Shelton has picked up on the idea quickly, and we lots of have repeat customers coming in several days per week, especially with the corporate parks in Shelton.” 

Both locations have only been open for less than a year, but they’re already off and running. Will it be a new experience for you? A comforting taste from the past? Either way, they’ve got you covered. 

Somos Handcrafted Arepas

63 Orange St., New Haven; 203 891 5592

704 Bridgeport Ave., Shelton; 203 513 8775

www.somosarepas.com