At Cesar’s Killer Margaritas in Lake View, Chicago, siblings Sandra Sánchez, Israel Sánchez, and Lourdes Durán are serving up their great-grandmother’s authentic Mexico City mole recipe. That’s right, 3 generations deep!
Every Sunday at 7 am, the sisters meet in their family restaurant to make the week’s batch of mole poblano.
The sauce is the highlight of several dishes at Cesar’s Killer Margaritas in Lakeview, Chicago on Broadway and Oakdale. Their great-grandmother’s coveted authentic family mole recipe is a saucy combination of ancho peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and chocolate, among 20 or so ingredients.
Mole, from the Nahuatl word “mōlli,” originates from the Oaxaca and Puebla regions. Plenty of food historians and experts on Mexican cuisine assert the existence of 300 or more different types across Mexico.
Sandy estimates that Cesar’s produces up to 10 gallons of mole monthly. They bottle and sell it for $12 each so customers can experiment with it at their own homes.