The owners of the popular Venezuelan restaurant Alma Cocina Latina aren’t too shy to admit business has been slow.

“People are going out less,” said co-owner Irena Stein. Her trendy Station North eatery is wading through an economic downturn for small businesses, particularly restaurants, and a lawsuit still in mediation that was filed by her former chef — “a dark spot” Stein says she is not yet able to speak about. But the restaurateur is far from deterred. Instead, she’s driving business forward by returning to her roots: arepas.

Candela, her long-awaited arepa bar, is not open to the public just yet, but as of June 12, customers can stop at the building’s takeout window, where they can buy the stuffed pockets Thursdays through Saturdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The 10 E. Lanvale St. location is adjacent to Alma Cocina Latina and features creations by its chefs Fernando Bertelsen and Hector Romero, who will be manning the window this weekend.

On Thursday, customers will be able to choose from five options. The Reina Pepiada is a classic, almost pulled-chicken salad-like filling with avocado and cilantro. The vegetarian take on Pabellón Criollo, a national dish normally served with shredded beef, instead has roasted maitake mushrooms, black beans and criollo sofrito, a vibrant blend of onions, peppers, garlic and cilantro. The cod and sweet plantains arepa was inspired by the Venezuelan island of Margarita. Two more flavors are being added this week, including a Venezuelan-style pulled beef with cheddar and guasacaca, or an avocado-based sauce, and the Dominó, a mix of black beans, plantains, white cheese, avocado and guasacaca.

The selections are a smattering of what’s to come once Candela opens full-time after the restaurant’s gas line is installed, which Stein said will happen sometime after June 22. As the arepa bar ramps up, Stein said she and her husband, co-owner Mark Demshak, plan on keeping the takeout window open late. Customers will be able to buy the treats after Candela closes at 10 p.m. through 1 a.m. Friday through Saturday — making it one of the few places for a late-night bite in the area.

She imagines people will flock to the spot before and after movies at The Charles Theatre, a train ride into Baltimore’s Penn Station or an event at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

Stein’s history in Baltimore with the Venezuelan street food goes back decades. “It’s absurd how much people love it,” Stein said. She often sold out of arepas while operating the former Café Azafrán inside Johns Hopkins’ Space Telescope Science Institute about 20 years ago.

Stein views the dish as sort of ambassador to Venezuelan culture as conflict within the South American country has pushed many to migrate beyond its borders, including her own restaurant staff.

Her cookbook, “Arepa: Classic & Contemporary Recipes for Venezuela’s Daily Bread,” is available for sale at Alma Cocina Latina. Arepas were so popular at Alma’s former Canton location that Stein said she had to 86 them because there was not enough kitchen space to keep up.

“They [the components] take up a lot of room,” she said. “It’s a fantastic dance of flavors.”

While the pockets are fairly simple — made with corn flour, salt, water and a little bit of oil — the fillings can have upwards of four layers, including sauce, meats and cheeses, each varying in richness and complexity. The right arepa, which Stein says Candela will have plenty of, is able to retain its softness on the outside and thin crispiness on the inside.

It’s one of the many promises Stein is looking forward to delivering to the Station North community, including a continued vow to be a zero-waste business. Candela will not use plastic materials, only those that are recyclable and compostable, and will find a use for every food item in the kitchen.

“We don’t let things rot in the refrigerator,” she said, adding that they won’t, for example, toss fish bones or heads that can be used in a stew.

Many people praise the idea, Stein said, but few are willing to manage the slimmer profit margins that come with ditching plastic and cheaper materials. The 30-seat Candela venue was already quite an investment for the restaurateur couple, who tried out a community crowdfunding platform last year to help bridge the gap.

“It wasn’t us knocking on people’s doors asking for money,” Demshak said.

Community organizers approached them with the idea to ask Baltimoreans to invest in Candela on Crowd Fund Baltimore, a now-inactive platform, to help the restaurateurs reach their goal of $130,000. But with the platform gone, Demshak is personally writing and sending 69 checks to the participants once a quarter, paying back 6% of their money, plus interest, in amounts that range from $4.99 to $256.

The money gets paid back whether or not Demshak and Stein stay in business, but they say the support from those who donated is a further testament to the need for Candela, and hopefully, its success.

“There’s a solidarity, it’s people who want this, it’s our neighbors,” Stein said. “It’s in service to our Station North community.”