#WCW: LA’s Guelaguetza Owner Talks Oaxacan Cuisine

Bricia Lopez learned to cook her famous mole recipe alongside her grandmother in Oaxaca. Today, the entrepreneur is a partner at Guelaguetza, one of Los Angeles’ best restaurants, where the same recipe is served and sold by the bottle.

The well-known Mexican eatery, located in the heart of Koreatown, was opened in 1994 by her parents, who were immigrants from Mexico. The hotspot isn’t only known for serving some of the city’s best Oaxacan dishes, though. It’s also a vibrant cultural location that features regular live music and a retail store where customers can purchase some of their food products. To longstanding fans of Guelaguetza, it’s no surprise that the restaurant recently received The James Beard Award in the American Classics category.

Aside from owning and operating Guelaguetza, Lopez is pursuing dreams of her own: she is a judge at numerous food events; she is the founder of The Taste of Mexico Association; and she is a food blogger and recipe developer for her personal site, Mole & More. We spoke to this “Oaxacan Princess” about her upbringing, businesses and more. Read on to see why she’s this week’s #WomanCrushWednesday! [pagebreak]

How has your father’s immigration story influenced your career path in the food business?

My father began his food career by selling food door-to-door. He didn’t know the language nor did he have a clear path for his business, yet he was able to build a multimillion dollar business in less than a decade. His story is something I keep clear and loud in my head to make me understand and know that anything really is possible in life with hard work and passion. He always said he wanted to make food for his people. He wanted people from Oaxaca to feel proud of where they come from and take pride in the recipes left behind by past generations. Today, we serve those same recipes and take pride to see a new generation of Oaxaqueños coming through our restaurant and feeling like they are in Oaxaca, even if it’s just for a second.

Tell us how you got to the point of creating homemade products which customers can now purchase.

When my parents retired, my sister, brother and I came together and decided to purchase the business from them. It was a decision we made as a family. As we were making the transition over to the next generation, we realized that we needed to make our own mark. Maybe it was a chip on our shoulder, but we wanted to build something we could truly call our own. My brother had the idea to create an online store and shipping mole all over the country. He created all of the back of the house infrastructure and today it has become its own business. 

Why did you choose to sell the mole and michelada mix, in particular?

The Michelada Mix came about one day when we realized how much mix we were selling out of our restaurants retail store, without even trying. People would come in and ask for the mix to go. We didn’t have any sort of legit bottling – we would just fill up empty water bottles and hand them over. It was crazy that people would come back for it! Then after a trip up to San Francisco, my brother and I talked it over, ran a few numbers and decided we had an opportunity. There was nothing like it in the market place. Today we are distributed by two of the major Hispanic grocery chains in California and our online sales have taken off. [pagebreak]

Jonathan Gold referred to your restaurant as the best Oaxacan in the country. How do you think it differs from other Oaxacan eateries?

Our restaurant is definitely the biggest is size and our menu is equally as big. I can eat there every day for a few weeks without ever having the same thing twice. But more than just serving food, our restaurant has become a cultural staple in LA. The art that is celebrated inside by muralists LA Piztola is very special. We commissioned them a few years ago and flew up from Oaxaca to create the massive mural that faces Olympic Blvd a couple of years ago. Then last year, they came back for their second piece ‘El Mezcalero’, which is an incredible piece of art.

You also have your own site! Tell us about the recipes you share on it.

Most of the recipes are recipes I would make at home and/or are recipes I would consider classics. I wanted to share these with my generation and encourage my readers to not only make these at home, but to share them with their own families. You can really learn to appreciate someone’s culture through the food they eat and I would love to spread love and acceptance to my culture through every recipe I post.

What’s your favorite thing about representing all mexicanas through your food and business?

My favorite part of what I do is watching the faces of young children as they take their first bite of a Oaxacan meal – especially those who have Oaxacan roots and don’t have the privilege of traveling back and forth like a lot of us do. To a lot of Oaxaqueños, Guelaguetza is the closest thing they can get to their homeland and watching them relive their childhood food memories through their children makes me the happiest.