SWEET SUCCESS | CHARLOTTE BAKERY
By: Damais Ocaña
El Herald | Food Dining Oct. 2000

Gladys Jofre recently caught another one - a customer trying to make off with a bottle of her special green sauce, the tasty, secret concoction that goes with the several versions of empanadas at her South Beach bakery.
Jofre owner of the South American Style Charlotte Bakery 1499 Washington Ave., was both flattered and peeved. She makes just enough of the Venezuelan sauce- fragrant with avocado, cilantro and onions- and a spicy red counterpart, to last one day.
She was almost in hr car when I caught up to her and said: " Don't do that to me, chama ( girl)" Jofre recalled laughing. If you want a litlle bit, I"ll give you some, but don't take the whole bottle".
Jofre says she can't really blame the customer. The sauce and the other foods in the bakery- cocada pastries, matambre sandwiches, pan de bono, imported yerba mate tea- remind people of home, wether it be Chile, Venezuela, Argentina or Colombia.
and that's what Jofre had in mind when she opened the bakery five years ago.
"I saw that people had a need of eating things from their own countries", she said.
What she didn't expect was that her tiny shop with one narrow table for two and a few stools, would turn into a popular neighborhood spot-and not just for South Americans. The place swells with people for breakfast and lunch, and stays open all night on weekends catering to the club crowd.
"I don't know the name of anything in this bakery"said Nuriel Hadad, an Israeli who doesn't speak Spanish but goes to Charlotte Bakery " four to five times a day" " I just walk in. smell and point to what I want. There are a lot of bakeries aound but when you walk around this one, you will go in".
Said Jofre; " I am very proud to have a business loved by people of so many different nationalities".

In her native Chile, Jofre grew up savoring the sweet smells of her parents' bakery, watching customers leave happy and full burdened with bags of breads and pastries.
She and husband Roberto, ran their own bakery in Venezuela for 22 years gradually adding foods from neighboring countries to their repertoire.
Five years ago,they brought it to South Florida, where their daughter lives.
Jofre said they named the bakery Charlotte because it " sounded more American" but they filled it with goodies they knew transplanted South Americans missed and that everyone else would soon crave
By far the favorites are the venezuelan cachitos, light, flaky dough filled with ham and cheese. Jofre said she sells 400 daily. But there are also sweets like Argentina's beloved alfajores de maizena- an ultra -sweet helping of dulce de leche sandwiched between two fat cookies.

Colombian treats includes pan de bono, dense rolls made with cheese, and buñuelos, figure-eights made of fried sweet potato dough and topped with anise-flavored syrup.
There are several types of Chilean breads- hearty country loaves and soft baguettes.
Jofre carries one ready-made sandwich made of boiled beef rolled with celery,carrots and green peppers and boiled egg chunks. It's called arrollado in Chile, enrollado in Venezuela and matambre ," the hunger killer," in Argentina.
Venezuela's llanero cheese and Argentina's Veronica cheese headline the deli case, alogside rolls of beef stuffed with vegetables that Jofre makes herself.
and soon, she will resume making pan de jamon a Venezuelan holiday specialty. Jofre starts selling the dough-wrapped rolls of smoked ham, olives and bacon by the slice in October and by the loaf in the weeks before Christmas. Last year she sold 600 many to homesick Venezuelans like Leo Blasini.

Blasini sstood by the deli case one recent morning watching commuters rush to finish their breakfast and Jofre laugh with customers as she gave them their change.
"I love this place?. he said. "This is like home to me".