Will Denny’s hit a grand slam with their latest offering? The venerable coffee shop chain just announced a new line of empanadas from TOMA, the food brand started by actress Sofia Vergara and her son Manolo. The sweet and savory pastry-wrapped shareable snacks will only be available in California and three other states starting October 28.
“We came up with the idea because I always wanted to bring something that was (from the) Latin part of my culture to the world,” Vergara told Entertainment Tonight. “Manolo is the chef in the house. I don’t know anything about cooking.” The mother and son team combined her childhood nickname “Toti” with “Manolo” to come up with the name of the new company. “It took three years to get that name,” her son cracks.
Manolo Gonzalez Vergara, 35, is an actor and producer like his mother. He splits his time between Los Angeles and Miami, where he teamed up with nightclub impresario Sam Nazarian of SBE Entertainment on the new venture, which also includes a frozen version available at supermarkets. “I’ve been cooking my whole life, since I was a child,” Gonzalez Vergara tells Los Angeles. “I did work in a restaurant in high school but as a teenager I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 40 people.”
“We are a breakfast heavy business,” says Karl Lucas of Denny’s. “We asked if we could do a bacon egg and cheese empanada. Then we added beef, chicken and an exclusive guava and cheese empanada.” The new offerings come at a time when Denny’s is having success with a line of handheld mix-and-match items like mozzarella sticks and chicken wings served with different sauces. “If you come in a large group, you can all share the dippers,” says Lucas. Denny’s new catering program will send people home with a dozen empanadas for a party or a holiday dinner. The company went private last year and appointed new CEO Chris Bode, who launched a strategic turnaround plan to bring new foods and enhancements to the 73-year-old chain.
Gonzalez Vergara has plans to expand the food line. “Empanadas will be our hero product, but we need to Toma-fy all the plates,” he says. “We don’t just stick to one country but present the flavors of Argentina, Mexico and Brazil in new and exciting ways. We present the best that Latin America can offer.”
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