Empanadas

Arizona Highway has a one-page writeup of Lola Empanada in San Tan Valley Arizona, southeast of Phoenix. The owner tested the market between stints of active duty by selling samples on Facebook. Based on response, she opened a restaurant later reviewed by Buzzfeed and boom now the place is packed.

This is part of a photo used in the magazine.

Mmmm. Looks good. Not the usual thing. Obviously deep fried.

They look like deep fried pierogis. Or calzones if you prefer. With southwestern ingredients, mostly, and southwest flavors, mostly.

What a great idea.

Well, here's dinner sorted.

Yelp reviewers report their green chile chicken is the best while they also like the beef, the chorizo, and the crab. Spinach and ricotta is shown above. 

They divide their chalkboard menu into meat and vegetarian and sweet. 

Apparently when we copy these, we can put anything we want in them. 

I bet the dough is regular pasta dough. 

Baked puff pastry seria muy elegante. ¿No?

Let's check out Yelp. They have 179 photos.

Aw, bless. Superman had the sloppy Joe empanada. Paper plate. That tells us, no dishwasher.

The owners.

You buy boxes of these things.

Wow. You sure get a lot for a low price.

Their sides are various beans and rice and plantain. The rice appears to be Jasmine rice.

My favorite is short-grained sticky rice, and these simple pictures make me want to make beans and rice RIGHT NOW!

One time a nutritionalist told me those two things together have the amino acids to form a compete protein. It sounded good but I didn't know what she was talking about. 

They offer dessert varieties.

Reviewers think highly of this place. It has won their hearts through their bocas y estómagos. 

What we have here is rigid simplicity brought to full expression; a very smart business model. By restricting their menu along tight lines they eliminate waste that accompanies complexity. They're not trying to please everyone, yet within their lines they manage to please quite a few. 

The lower reviews still give lengthy complimentary descriptions. Without saying explicitly their low ratings communicate, this isn't anything fancy or extreme such as a five star restaurant. It's a quick in-and-out type of place, but for what it is, they've done the best that is possible. And these customers come back and try other things. They're afraid they're going to miss something great.