Jessy's Pastries opens in Westbury
Empanadas from Jessy's Pastries come in traditional beef or chicken versions, as well as stuffed with jackfruit, plantains or vegetables. Credit: Jessy's Pastries
Flaky empanadas filled with roasted plantains, jackfruit and the more traditional beef or chicken have landed in a swath of Westbury often brimming with shoppers looking for a quick snack.
The second location of Jessy's Pastries, owned by former teacher (and current vegan) Jessy Nahmias, opened in mid-September in a sunny corner space on Old Country Road, across from the Source Mall. A chalkboard lists Jessy's core empanadas of beef, chicken, spinach and mozzarella, mac-and-cheese, and black bean. In a glass case is an expanded roster of both meat and vegan empanadas stuffed with jackfruit and sweet potato, roasted vegetables with pineapple, and soy chorizo and plantain.
Savory empanadas — which are baked, rather than fried — cost $3.75 each, or two for $6.50. The cafe has a handful of tables; order the pastries to go and the empanadas will be packed into individually labeled paper sleeves and tucked into a white box along with a vivid cilantro-jalapeño green dipping sauce.
On the sweet side are empanadas filled with Nutella or guava and cream cheese, or Nahmias' Peruvian-style pastries, such as th buttery sandwich cookies known as alfajores, plus vegan banana bread, brownies, macaroons and cannolis. Alfajores can come powdered with sugar, filled with Nutella or rum-infused dulce de leche, or rolled in coconut flakes, and cost $1.50 each or 12 for $15.
Lima, Peru-born Nahmias — who got started by selling alfajores on Etsy, and empanadas at food festivals and school fairs — opened her first brick-and-mortar location on Long Beach Road in Oceanside in 2016. Production remains in Oceanside, but the empanadas are baked on site in both places daily.
Jessy's Pastries, 469 Old Country Rd., Westbury. 516-280-4220. jessyspastries.com (Parking available on side street.)
