Puyero Will Make Your Venezuelan Street Food Dreams Come True

Philly’s Latin American food scene gets a small bump of Venezuelan flavor today now that Puyero is open at 524 South 4th Street.

Brothers Gil and Simon Arends, plus Gil’s wife Manuela, saw that there was a dearth of Venezuelan identity in Philly’s vast array of Latin American eateries. Besides Sazon, the only other Venezuelan restaurant in Philly just opened in December. So the Arendses decided to fix the situation with a new Queen Village street food shop serving up, of course, arepas (cornmeal patties stuffed with all sorts of fillings), plus patacónes (what Arends calls "one of the best-kept secrets of Venezuela’s street cuisine": a sandwich of beef or chicken with cabbage, ham and cheese — sub fried plantains for bread). The menu (below) is somewhat of a soft-launch list, so expect it to grow in the coming weeks. Everything on it pretty much sits between $7 and $10.

Store hours are Tuesday through Thursday 5 p.m. - 10 p.m., Friday till 11 p.m., and on weekends they open for lunch and dinner starting at 11:30 a.m.