Mexican family gives Brooklyn mole poblano flavor
Bushwick family business is on the rise
The aroma of toasted almonds and sesame seeds, chiles and spices emerges from this small Brooklyn store where about 1,600 pounds of mole poblano is made every day.
Three generations of Mexican women work inside, wearing white hairnets while they peel, cut and grind ingredients, standing next to enormous two-handled pots with onions and garlic boiling in oil.
“There is so much to do,” says Damiana Bravo, a petite woman of nearly 80, when asked why she still works.
The matriarch started making the Mexican sauce in New York in the 1970s to sell it to her fellow factory workers. Now, her dark-hued paste of ground chiles and a dozen other ingredients is distributed to bodegas, supermarkets and restaurants in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and North Carolina.