Wichitans who competed on Food Network race find a brick-and-mortar space in College Hill

Over the summer, the owners of Wichita’s Argentina’s Empanadas were introduced on a national stage — and things have been pretty crazy since then.

Now, they’re ready to announce what’s next for them after placing third on Season 17 of “The Great Food Truck Race,” a popular Food Network show hosted by celebrity chef Tyler Florence.

Not only have the owners — Carolina Brandan and husband Chad Freeman — upgraded their actual food truck, but they’ve also found a space where they can park on the regular. Additionally, they’re adding a second rig and have finally acquired what they’ve been after since the start of their business: a brick-and-mortar location, which will be in College Hill.

Brandan and Freeman, whose specialty is stuffed empanadas — a staple dish in Brandan’s native Argentina — have been serving their food all summer at the Old Town Farm & Art Market , which happens on Saturday mornings. Until recently, they were serving from an old red truck, which they’ve been renting.

But they just paid to have the truck “wrapped” to look similar to the truck provided to them on “The Great Food Truck Race” — a dream truck that they had to leave behind when filming was over.

A little more than two weeks ago, the couple debuted the truck’s new look at the Saturday-morning market, and customers were wowed, Freeman said. The red has been replaced with a light-blue pattern and the restaurant’s logo — the sun that appears on the Argentinian flag, surrounded by a circle of stars.

“Now people can identify who we are from a distance. We’ve even had people stop and pull over because they see it,” Freeman said, adding that some people even have assumed the truck is the same one from the show.

The truck, though, won’t be the couple’s only kitchen on wheels. They’ve just agreed to purchase a big new pull-behind food trailer from Freddy’s. (The chain added the trailer in 2019 , when it was still owned by founders Randy Simon and Scott Redler, and used it mostly for catering gigs). It will soon be wrapped to match the Argentina’s Empanadas food truck.

A presence in Andover

Brandan and Freeman plan to continue their Saturday morning farmer’s market appearances, but they’ve also found a new place to set up shop. Recently, they took over an old building just off of Kellogg in Andover that was previously home to a heating and cooling business. The building, whose address is 1023 U.S. 54 East, is slated to be torn down in the future to make way for Kellogg expansion — but that’s still a year or two away, Freeman said.

In the meantime, the couple is renting the building to use as a prep kitchen. Though they’ll still cook empanadas in their mobile kitchens, the building will give them a larger space to prepare and fold empanadas and will also allow them to expand their refrigeration capabilities.

The building also happens to have a big front parking lot area perfect for setting up a food truck. Soon, the couple will park their new food trailer there and serve lunch and dinner. They may eventually add some picnic tables outside or even some indoor seating.

“That’s where we’re producing our product every day,” he said of the space on Kellogg. “So we’re trying to kill two birds with one stone.”

Though they’ve already set up in the parking lot a couple of times, more regular service should start in a few weeks. The other food truck will continue to travel around town and serve empanadas at places like food truck rallies and breweries.

A presence in College Hill

The old Andover plumbing business, though, is not Argentina’s Empanadas’ new brick-and-mortar space.

They’ve recently signed a lease to take over the little space on the west edge of Clifton Square that has been home to a number of businesses over the past several years, including Fresh Roast Coffee Co. and The No Bake Cafe . It most recently was occupied by a snow cone business called ICY-T .

They’ll take over the space on Oct. 1 and hope they can get it turned around quickly. Initially, Freeman said, they’ll operate it as a takeout stand that will be open during lunch and dinner. They may start with some “trial-and-error pop ups” next month with a goal of being completely up and running by early November.

The couple is also hoping that the space could become a long-term home. If they can work it out with the city, Freeman said, Clifton Square is open to them expanding the space and possibly adding a deck for seating over the top of the little building.

“We feel like Clifton Square and College Hill really fits our culture,” he said.

The Clifton Square shop will be open six or seven days a week, Freeman said. The empanadas won’t be made there but brought over from the production facility.

The couple really wants to capitalize on the exposure they got from the television show, and now is the time, Freeman said. Brandan even recently left her job at Empower to focus full time on the business.

“It was a tough decision,” Freeman said. “But it was one where we needed to be brave and lose a little bit of security. But the work is there, too... the inquiries and the demands and the phone ringing.”

Surviving the ‘Reddit trolls’

Life has been interesting since “The Great Food Truck Race” aired, Freeman said. Wichita has been supportive, and fans of the show have even driven to the farmers market from as far away as Texas just to dine at the truck. The owners even been asked by a person who tried their food during filming to travel to Louisiana and cater a wedding

There’s also been a degree of online hate from “Reddit trolls,” Freeman said. The couple and their teammate, local pastry business owner Paola Mentis, were depicted in one episode as stirring up trouble. And as front runners for much of the season, they were often targeted by the other teams.

“It was a huge topic in the Food Network world,” said Freeman, adding that he’s still getting used to being recognized around town by people who saw him on the show. “People care, and there are people who really, really get mad, and you just cannot change their minds. You’ve got to leave them alone.”

But most people can see through the editing, Freeman said, and many locals have rushed to their defense.

“The community has been fantastic,” Freeman said. “We have a ton of people that come to the truck and want to tell me congratulations or tell us we got robbed or give their two cents, and I love it. I absolutely love it when people tell me they watched.”

Brandan and Freeman started their business at home at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, selling Argentinian empanadas stuffed with fillings like beef, chicken, caramelized onions, smoked ham and more.

They quickly learned they needed a commercial kitchen to legally operate and moved their operations to the kitchen of Reverie Coffee Roasters. Then, in the spring of 2022, they started selling empanadas from the Anchor Meat Market at 1113 E. Douglas — a setup they knew was temporary.

The couple was recruited for the show by producers, who somehow found them and messaged them on Instagram, Freeman said. They were eventually cast and filmed the race — in which several teams of food truckers travel around the country and compete to sell the most from their trucks at each stop — for seven weeks starting in January. The show aired from the end of June through mid August on Food Network.

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