Walden residents felt heavy hearts and unappeased appetites last week after losing one of the village’s most outgoing businesses: Empanada Nirvana, formerly located at 75 East Main Street. Nelson Pantoja, the owner of Empanada Nirvana, announced on Saturday, July 14 that the restaurant’s location in Walden was permanently closed but assured residents that Montgomery’s location at 886 Route 17K would continue operating as normal.

Pantoja officially opened the eatery in Walden on May 31, 2021; before establishing his first permanent location, he served customers with two food trailers for three years. As a passionate cook and artist, he grew interested in Walden and Montgomery’s communities and sought to provide relief to residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. As he stated back in 2021, he simply wanted customers to “sit down, enjoy some artwork, some good music, and just forget about life and all their problems.”

Empanada Nirvana is known for serving two dozen kinds of empanadas along with sandwiches, Spanish and Cuban delights, and dishes loaded with pasta or salad. While chowing down, customers could observe Pantoja’s paintings and sculptures scattered within and outside the store, a special touch meant to promote a fun atmosphere.

Throughout its run, Empanada Nirvana hosted music performances, movie nights, vendor spaces for fellow restaurants, and several other activities. The eatery provided families facing food insecurity with a community refrigerator filled with prepared meals, managed summer lunch programs for children, and gave away backpacks with school supplies to students.

“We went out of our way to make ourselves part of the community in ways that most businesses don’t,” Pantoja said last Saturday. “We held and hosted family-friendly events, invited musicians to use the location as a venue for exposure and we even hosted an expo of sorts which featured fun events for kids. We even invited other restaurants to set up their booths and sell food.”

“We welcomed everyone, including members of the LGBTQ community, because inclusivity was never a question for us,” he continued. “We never stopped to consider whether or not showing support or welcoming anyone would negatively impact business and we still don’t.”

Ultimately, Pantoja closed Walden’s location due to a few problems; regarding the building, the restaurant experienced flooding issues during heavy rainfall. More severely, the eatery faced scrutiny from a vocal group of residents who submitted multiple complaints and requests for several inspections. Pantoja asserted that these individuals were unhappy with the restaurant’s outreach and inclusivity, going as far as to spread comments online and potentially staging a dead animal near the restaurant.

“To put it bluntly, some residents were just outright bigots who took issue with the diversity of staff and even customers, particularly when it came to our vocal support of the LGBTQ community,” he said “This, in particular, we believe, was the reason someone planted a dead rat on our storefront.”

There were also issues with a free food fridge in which the day’s untouched leftovers were placed in an outdoor refrigerator at the end of the day, for anyone to take, free of charge. Several village trustees raised health concerns and a violation notice was issued by then building inspector Dean Stickles. An Orange County Health Department official said the refrigerator needed to be locked when the restaurant was closed, and that a thermometer needed to be present to “keep an eye on the temperature.”

Eventually, the refrigerator donated by Walden Mayor John Ramos was replaced with an outdoor grade one.

Pantoja said the restaurant passed nearly every inspection without violations and never engaged in panhandling or vagrancy, despite being accused of such.

“I want to stress that food safety was never an issue; the nuisances had all to do with the property and equipment, such as the community fridge mentioned above,” he said. “We passed every single inspection save for some minor nickel and dime, the kind usually not fairly applied because they’re meant to aggravate.”

Moving forward, Pantoja and his staff will put all their efforts into making Montgomery’s Empanada Nirvana the best it could be. He thanked everyone who supported Walden’s location, including Mayor Ramos, who played a major role in persuading Pantoja to set up shop in the village.

“Let me be clear that most residents and some town officials were indeed very welcoming and supportive,” he said. “In fact, we’d like to give special thanks to Mayor John Ramos in particular, for his support.

“In the meantime, please stop by the Montgomery location, say hi, and grab a bite,” he added.

Empanada Nirvana is located on 886 Route 17K in Montgomery and operates from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday.