BALTIMORE — The burner was on and the bar was busy at The Empanada Lady as the staff prepares for CIAA week.
The basketball tournament is coming back to Baltimore for its fifth year and is expected to bring more than 150,000 student-athletes along with it.
The event officially kicks off Saturday with the Black Owned Restaurant Tour, or BORT, which will showcase different Black businesses in the city every day.
The Empanada Lady's day for the spotlight is Thursday.
But General Manager Tiesha James told WMAR-2 News she and her staff are prepared for large crowds filing into the restaurant all week.
The Empanada Lady prepares for CIAA week!
"We've had to up our staffing of course," she said, "Oh we're definitely expecting it to get busy. We're going to open late every day of the weekend just so we can encourage everybody to come in whether you're going to be here at the top of the morning to do one of our comedy brunches or if you're going to come late at night 12 o clock just to get a late good bite."
She said customers have to try their staple empanadas.
But the Front of House Manager Taylor Striplin said you can't forget about the bar.
"We're a craft cocktail bar, we press everything by hand, we make all of our syrups fresh with our hands in house fresh ingredients always," Striplin said.
She told WMAR-2 News BORT is an important moment for Black businesses to shine.
"I'm excited for us to be able to promote our business in the sense where all Black people can come together and support our businesses and make sure that we're able to keep our capital growing and funding all the time and building that community and that way it's being passed down to future generations."
The restaurant tour starts with CHX Kitchen on Saturday afternoon.
