A new arepa bar has opened its doors in Baltimore's Station North neighborhood after more than three years of planning, funding hurdles and permitting delays. Candela, located at 10 E. Lanvale St., served its first full day of business on Thursday, following a soft launch the day before by owners Irena Stein and Mark Demshak.
Stein and Demshak, who also own the acclaimed Venezuelan restaurant Alma Cocina Latina, first announced the Candela concept back in 2023, according to WBAL News Radio. What was originally supposed to be a three-month construction timeline stretched on for years, delayed by funding needs and a lengthy city permitting process, the station reports.
To help bridge that financing gap, Stein raised more than $80,000 in 2024 through Crowd Fund Baltimore, an SEC-licensed community investment platform launched by the Maryland Neighborhood Exchange and Crowdfund Mainstreet, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The mechanism let local backers help fund the buildout while the pair waited on permits to clear.
A Fast-Casual Sibling With a Serious Pedigree
Candela operates on a fast-casual model built around self-service ordering kiosks and an open kitchen where diners can watch an assembly line of cooks preparing their food, per the station's report. The space seats around 40 people inside, with a few outdoor tables, bar seating without alcohol, and greenery throughout the dining room; the owners also plan to eventually add a mural featuring Venezuelan petroglyphs.
The menu leans into accessibility, offering seven arepa variations alongside rice bowls and sides, all priced under $20 and entirely gluten-free. One standout, the Princess, is built around Rooted Rotisserie chicken salad, while a Venezuelan-style barbecue option features Blue Pit BBQ smoked brisket, the same report notes. Candela is open Wednesday through Sunday starting at 11 a.m., according to El Tiempo Latino, which also reports that owners plan to add a walk-up takeout window open until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays to catch late-night crowds from Station North's nightlife and performance venues, where after-hours dining options remain scarce.
Testing the Concept Before the Storefront
Before Candela's dining room opened, Alma Cocina Latina soft-launched the arepa concept in June 2025 through a temporary takeout window, serving the stuffed corn cakes to coincide with events like the Baltimore Pride Parade, according to Baltimore Magazine. That window served as an interim test kitchen for recipes developed by executive chef Hector Romero while the owners navigated the permitting delays that pushed back the full buildout.
Arepas themselves trace back roughly 1,000 years B.C., and the dish has spread across global food markets alongside the emigration of an estimated eight million Venezuelans over the past decade, the magazine notes. That international backdrop gives Candela's Station North opening a cultural resonance beyond the neighborhood, even as the storefront fills a very local gap in daytime lunch options.
An Owner Rooted in Food and Civic Work
Stein brings an unusual resume to the venture. She holds a master's degree in cultural anthropology from Stanford University, where she studied as a Fulbright scholar, and worked in social work and cultural administration in Brussels and Caracas before entering Baltimore's restaurant industry in 2002, according to the Maryland Daily Record. She got her start in the city's hospitality scene by founding nonprofit, sustainable cafes on the Johns Hopkins University campus.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Stein co-founded a relief kitchen initiative with World Central Kitchen and the Mera Kitchen Collective that prepared 150,000 free meals for food-insecure Baltimore residents while keeping her restaurant staff employed, the Daily Record reports. In July 2023, she also published Arepa: Classic & Contemporary Recipes for Venezuela's Daily Bread, a 50-recipe cookbook that Food & Wine named one of its best summer cookbooks that year, following five years of culinary research, according to Baltimore Magazine.
A Storefront With Its Own History
Candela's building at 10 E. Lanvale St. sits on the ground floor of the Nelson Kohl Apartments, an eight-story residential building completed in 2018 that once housed Milk & Honey Market, per SouthBMore.com. The property was developed as part of ongoing transit-oriented investment near Penn Station.
The location also carries symbolic weight for the neighborhood's identity as a creative hub. Station North was designated in 2002 as Baltimore's first state-recognized Arts and Entertainment District, spanning 104 acres across the Charles North, Greenmount West and Barclay neighborhoods, according to the Maryland State Arts Council. That designation brings tax credits and development grants meant to support creative enterprises like Candela and its sister restaurant.
