In Fort Worth, this Mexican food specialty isn’t just for special occasions anymore
Fort Worth restaurants are serving more moles, and that’s a good thing.
Until recently, only a few restaurants offered the labor-intensive mole poblano, mole pipian or another of the thick chile-chocolate-and-spice sauces served over chicken or duck.
Enchilada expert Enchiladas Olé and contemporary restaurants like Maria’s Mexican Kitchen, Mesero and Meso Maya introduced diners to chicken enchiladas in mole — more accurately, “enmoladas.”
Now, North Main Street anchors Esperanza’s Restaurant and Los Asaderos are both serving mole poblano on request, either as an enchilada option or over chicken.
Between those restaurants, the new PoquitoMás Mexican Kitchen & Seafood is serving one of the richest, darkest moles.
The restaurant moved from Aledo to take over a familiar location at 2020 N. Main St. near the Stockyards.
PoquitoMás owner Sergio Franco formerly cooked at the Worthington and City Club, so his menu is notably more varied, ranging from typical Mexican restaurant dishes to salads, fettuccine Alfredo and specialties such as seafood molcajete and salmon in a mezcal-citrus sauce.
The eye-catcher on the menu is the fried-chicken-and-corn “elote tacos.”
But PoquitoMás’ chicken enmoladas ($10.50) are topped with one of the darkest, most chocolatey moles this side of Mansfield’s famous Casa Jacaranda.
Franco said he took inspiration from the mole traditions of Oaxaca and Puebla.
“We’ve actually had a customer who said they never liked mole until they tried our enmoladas,” he said.
To ask about mole poblano, I turned to Enchiladas Olé owner Mary Patino Vásquez, who markets and sells her artisan enchilada sauces.
She said restaurants were slow to add mole because “it’s not easy to make and you have to watch it — just like rice, you can’t leave it.”
Mole poblano was something her family saved for special occasions and birthdays, she said. Her recipe is a blend of her paternal grandmother’s sauce from Tamaulipas and her Spanish mother’s addition of star anise.
“Everyone’s mole tastes different,” she said. “It’s just recipes passed down from families.”
Franco’s new restaurant, PoquitoMás, is open daily except Tuesdays; 817-585-1716, poquitomas.restaurant.
It’s near two older mole favorites Esperanza’s Restaurant, 2122 N. Main St., and Los Asaderos, 1535 N. Main St.
(Vásquez’s restaurant, Enchiladas Olé, is open for lunch and dinner weekdays and Saturdays across town at 2418 Forest Park Blvd.; enchiladasole.com.)
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
