Bricia Lopez is a Mexican-American restaurateur and author. Lopez is the co-owner of

Guelaguetza The Guelaguetza (; ), also known as Los lunes del cerro ('Mondays on the Hill'), is an annual indigenous cultural event in Mexico that takes place in the city of Oaxaca, capital of the state of Oaxaca, and nearby villages. The celebration feature ...

, a Oaxacan restaurant in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in the United States. Lopez is one of America's foremost authorities on Oaxacan culture and cuisine and is credited with helping to popularize mezcal in the United States. She also co-hosts the Super Mamás

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

with her sister, Paulina Lopez.

Early life and education

Bricia Lopez was born in

San Pablo Villa de Mitla San Pablo Villa de Mitla is a town and municipalities of Mexico, municipality in Mexico that is most famous for being the site of the Mitla archeological ruins. It is part of the Tlacolula District, Oaxaca, Tlacolula District in the east of the Va ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Her father made

mezcal Mezcal (, ), sometimes spelled mescal, is a liquor, distilled alcoholic beverage made from any type of agave. Agaves or magueys are endemic to the Americas and found globally as ornamental plants. The ''Agave'' genus is a member of the Agavoid ...

and operated a mezcal store. As a child, Lopez worked in the store, selling mezcal. At the age of ten, she migrated, with her parents, to the United States. Her parents, Maria Monterrubio and Fernando Lopez, opened Guelaguetza, a Oaxacan restaurant in the

Koreatown A Koreatown (), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula. History Koreatowns as an East Asian ethnic enclave have only been in existence s ...

neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1994.

Career

Lopez and her sister, Paulina, and brother, Fernando, took over ownership of Guelaguetza after their parents retired. The late L.A. Times food critic Jonathan Gold called the restaurant "The best Oaxacan restaurant in the United States". In 2015, she co-created the

Super Mamás with her sister, Paulina. In 2019, Lopez opened Mama Rabbit at the

Park MGM Park MGM, formerly Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, is a megaresort hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International. It was developed by Mirage R ...

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. It claims to have the largest tequila and mezcal selection in the United States, with over 500 offerings. That same year, the cookbook ''Oaxaca: Home Cooking from the Heart of Mexico'', written by Lopez and Javier Cabral, was published. It is the first cookbook published to be written by an Oaxacan person. The book has been named one of the top cookbooks of 2019 by '' Mother Jones'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

''.

Personal life

Lopez lives in

Montecito Heights, Los Angeles Montecito Heights is a neighborhood in the Northeast Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California. The population in 2000 was estimated at 16,768. Geography and transportation Montecito Heights' boundaries are roughly the Pasadena Freeway ( SR ...

. She is married to Eduardo Maytorena III. They have a son, Eduardo Santiago Maytorena IV. They also have a dog named Diego. Lopez's favorite meal of the day is breakfast. Two of her favorite Los Angeles restaurants for breakfast include the Olympic Cafe and the

Ace Hotel Los Angeles The United Artists Theatre is a historic former movie palace and office building located at 937 South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, California. It was the tallest building in the city for one year after its completion in 1927 and was the tal ...

. Ray’s and Stark Bar, at

LACMA The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, is one of her favorite lunch restaurants. Favorite dinner restaurants of Lopez's include Scopa Italian Roots, Republique, Sotto, Bäco Mercat, Sushi Gen, Hama Sushi, and The Stocking Frame. Her favorite Los Angeles coffee shop is Café Demitasse.

References

External links

*
Official website for
Super Mamás *
"Bricia Lopez feels a deep sense of responsibility for her family restaurant, Guelaguetza"
from

The Splendid Table ''The Splendid Table'' is a weekly radio program about food hosted by Francis Lam. The program began in 1997 on Minnesota Public Radio, and was originally hosted by Lynne Rossetto Kasper until her retirement in 2017. It is produced and distribu ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Bricia Living people Writers from Los Angeles 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople American writers of Mexican descent Mexican emigrants to the United States American women restaurateurs American restaurateurs 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people) Writers from Oaxaca

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

Further reading

References

External links