![\"LolasYeah\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/LolasYeah.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Maria Delores Navarro\u2014referred to by friends and family simply as \u201cLola\u201d\u2014came to Long Beach from Guadalajara in 1972 with nothing but fifty bucks and the dream of opening a restaurant. Little did she know that her dream, which became tangible with the opening of Lola\u2019s Mexican Cuisine on Retro Row, would be celebrating its sixth year running today.<\/p>\n
For Lola, food was life: it connected communities, families, friends, lovers, and strangers. After having two children\u2014Luis and Erica\u2014food became even more important since it sustained her family while she cleaned homes.<\/p>\n
![\"LolaFood01\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/LolaFood01.jpg\")
By 2007, her children were grown but her dream still remained\u2014and she decided to act upon it, opening up Lola\u2019s Mexican Cuisine on 4th Street in the heart of Retro Row.<\/p>\n
It was then that I first met Lola, a few weeks after they had opened. My curiosity was not just piqued by a sit-down Mexican joint hitting the heart of my own ‘hood, but a sign out front that made my heart burst with gastronomical joy: she was serving birria, one of my personal favorite traditional Mexican dishes. I was slightly skeptical, however, upon learning she turned the dish into something I initially felt made the dish either too uppity or awesomely uppity: rather than the traditional goat, she used pork and veal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll never go back to goat,\u201d Lola then told me. \u201cThis is the way birria should always be made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having learned to never argue with a Mexican mother, I ordered the birria\u2014and to this day, it remains my one of favorites, on par with my Boyle Heights staple Birrieria Jalisco.<\/p>\n
The response to Lola\u2019s was immediately positive, becoming famous for what we at the Post<\/em>, among others, call their \u201cgreen crack\u201d salsa (just try to stop eating it once you’ve started\u2014you can’t.) and their variety of Mexican dishes. Though success had been granted early to Lola\u2019s\u2014Lola and her son Luis were there daily\u2014her battle with colon cancer unfortunately took her from her friends and family in September of 2010.<\/p>\n Even beyond Lola\u2019s physical presence\u2014\u201cHer legacy always lives on in Long Beach and her restaurant,\u201d said Luis\u2014Lola\u2019s has become a cultural staple in more than just the way it offers food: it is home to the city\u2019s first parklet (the inspiration for those at Number Nine and Berlin) as well as owner and chef Luis becoming a philanthropic and cultural influence, serving on multiple boards and hosting Frida Kahlo\u2019s nephew via Skype for a class on cooking from Kahlo\u2019s own cookbook.<\/p>\n If you stop by Lola\u2019s today, make sure to offer your congratulations to Luis, Lola, and the entire Lola\u2019s family for their six years (and counting) of making Long Beach a little bit tastier and definitely more colorful.<\/p>\n {FG_GEOMAP [33.7715895,-118.16698889999998] FG_GEOMAP}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maria Delores Navarro\u2014referred to by friends and family simply as \u201cLola\u201d\u2014came to Long Beach from Guadalajara in 1972 with nothing but fifty bucks and the dream of opening a restaurant. 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