*This article includes mentions of merchants or brands who are partners of DoorDash, and DoorDash may receive a commission if you choose to make a purchase from these merchants or brands.
The story of Guelaguetza is one of the American dream: a family-run restaurant built out of poverty that has gone on to win awards and survive three decades of business in one of the most competitive restaurant cities in the world. Opened by Fernando Lopez Sr. in 1994, the Koreatown fixture was one of the first restaurants to bring Oaxacan food to LA.
In 1993, Mexico was facing a financial crisis after the devaluation of the peso. In order to support his family, Fernando Lopez Sr. moved to LA from Mexico, where he began to sell Oaxacan products like mole door to door. Within nine months, he had saved enough money (and earned a reputation as “El Señor de las Tlayudas,” after the region’s famed toasted tortilla dish) to open a restaurant and move the rest of his family to the States.
At the time, Oaxacan food was not widely served in LA restaurants, if at all. But Fernando Lopez Sr. was determined to share his cuisine. “Everyone told my father he was crazy,” says daughter Bricia Lopez, who I caught up with over Zoom recently. Instead, friends and family encouraged him to open up a burger joint. But when Oaxacan expats lined up to buy out all of their tamales, the Lopez family knew they had a hit on their hands.
Critical Success
The late Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold was also an early Guelaguetza supporter. “Jonathan Gold put us on the map,” says Lopez. In Gold’s 1994 review, he talks specifically about what would become one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, the mole negro. He wrote that Guelaguetza’s mole is “so much better than other moles locally available… that it is almost like seeing a Diego Rivera mural up close for the first time after years of seeing nothing but reproductions.” Later, Gold went on to name it one of the best Mexican restaurants in the country.
The mole negro is the restaurant’s signature item, made with all Oaxacan-sourced ingredients. “What sets our mole apart is my mother’s recipe,” says Lopez. Among the other must-try dishes, Lopez recommends the chile rellenos, which are stuffed with chicken picadillo or cheese, breaded in egg and flour, deep fried, and topped with a homemade tomato sauce. She also recommends the Festival de Moles, a sampler platter consisting of four varieties of their signature item. It includes mole negro, mole rojo, colaradito (a brick-red variation), and estofado (made with olives and sesame seeds) served with shredded chicken breast and rice.
“I also really love our chalupas; they really go under the radar,” she says. For those, you can expect small, thick-and-crispy tortillas topped with seasonal veggies in a guajillo chile and garlic sauce that are ideal for a vegetarian (a vegan option is also available).
A Multigenerational Effort
Fernando Lopez Sr. worked tirelessly for 20 years running Guelaguetza and several other restaurants, as well as various other businesses, including a newspaper he founded for Oaxacan expats in LA. His wife Maria and children all worked alongside him. In 2000, the restaurant moved to its current location on W. Olympic Blvd where it remains a neighborhood fixture.
In 2013, the couple decided to move back to Oaxaca, announcing they would close the restaurant and retire. Faced with the possibility of losing the restaurant, three of the four Lopez children — Bricia, Paulina, and Fernando Jr. — decided to step up to the plate to continue the legacy their father had so painstakingly built.
Throughout his career, Lopez Sr. had lost all his money a few times, dealt with employee theft, and a host of other hardships along the way. At the time, the couple was staring down a good amount of debt, but the children were determined to help their parents. They streamlined operations at the restaurant and added take-home items like Michelada mix and mole starters to help increase sales. The children paid back every cent their parents owed by 2015.
The Next Chapter
Since then, Bricia Lopez has published two cookbooks: “Oaxaca: Home Cooking From the Heart of Mexico” in 2019 and, more recently, “Asada: The Art of Mexican Style Cooking” in 2023. She also has her own podcast, “Super Mamas,” created with her sister Paulina. In 2015, the restaurant was given an America’s Classic Award by the James Beard Foundation. Lopez Sr. returned stateside to deliver a heartfelt thank-you speech.
With all of the more recent media attention and success, Bricia, who now has children of her own, remains optimistic about the future: “I find joy in just continuing to shape the palates of young children of Oaxacan descent and to show and to continue to share our culture and build upon what we’ve created.”
PHOTO CREDIT: courtesy of Bricia Lopez
