Turning Your Grandmother’s 'Best Birria In Town' Into A Vegan Business

Desiree Flores was raised in her grandmother’s lively kitchen in Boyle Heights. Juicy birria tacos were the family’s love language, and food brought them all together. So when she became a vegan at 17, to make a healthy change in her life, it was a significant challenge.

“I didn't really know any other vegans,” says Flores, “and then there's no vegan restaurants. There's no Trader Joe's nearby. There's no, like, any of the health stores or anything different with a very Latino-based community.”

But Flores refused to abandon the foods from her childhood. So, she started experimenting with creating plant-based versions of her favorite dishes.

After lots of trial and error, she became an avid home chef and developed a talent for emulating traditional Mexican meals with a vegan spin for her friends and family.

Desiree’s younger sister Chelsea remembers when she first started making her vegan renditions, “a lot of people were a little skeptical because obviously, being with the culture, it does revolve around like a lot of eating meat," she says.

"But honestly, they still enjoyed the fact that she was still able to celebrate these traditions with us, even though it wasn't meat-based food. And she was still kind of doing her little twist on it.”

How Dear Mama got started

Then, in 2017, she took a catering gig on a whim. She made tamales for a vegan supper club, which turned into a string of opportunities to provide food for more events. She had just graduated with a degree in business and marketing from Cal State Northridge and decided to act fast and turn her hobby into a business.

“I knew I was going to be an entrepreneur,” says Flores, “I just didn't know what exact manner, and I didn't ever think it would be food.”

Desiree Flores, owner of Dear Mama

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Claire Fogarty

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For LAist

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One day, when she was scraping together the details for her business, she heard Tupac Shakur’s song "Dear Mama" play, and she had a name for her business, dedicating it both to her mother and grandmother.

What started as an improvised venture out of her kitchen now turned into a full-time job in 2019 with a pop-up and catering business.

Crowds line up at Dear Mama.

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Claire Fogarty

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For LAist

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The secret

The first dish Flores set out to perfect was birria, given that her grandmother is known to have some of the best homemade birria in town.

“[Birria] meant a lot to me,” says Flores, “And in order for me to recreate that flavor and that nostalgia, I did a lot of research trying to figure out the right consistency flavor.”

The secret to Dear Mama’s meaty texture is marinated jackfruit. The versatile ingredient absorbs flavor and imitates the tender texture of meat. Flores developed all of her recipes from scratch, all with a final seal of approval from her grandmother.

She emphasizes that a lot of what people enjoy about birria is actually the sauces: “It's all plants and herbs, and it's not necessarily meat-based. It takes people a second to realize that.”

Though some birria purists are skeptical about trying a plant-based version, Flores urges everyone to try it at least once. She often even gives out a free taco sample to curious people yet to be convinced of her offerings.

“If we can be that person to be like, ‘Hey, just try it,’ and they're like really surprised,” says Chelsea Flores, who also helps out with the business, “We want to be able to open people's minds and not to throw veganism out.”

She found that popping up in Mariachi Park in Boyle Heights, she encounters more people of older generations who may not be as familiar with vegan food, and she likes to be the one to introduce them to it.

“Older individuals took a liking to it because a lot of them were already suffering from health ailments, so they wanted to find a solution for that,” she says.

In addition to birria tacos, Dear Mama serves a variety of other dishes, including tortas, nachos, pozole, and tamales, depending on the event.

Serving the community

Part of Flores’ mission with Dear Mama is to show up with healthy options for the community. Earlier this year, she collaborated with Los Angeles Food Policy Council to put on vegan cooking workshops in local liquor stores and tienditas in Boyle Heights, MacArthur Park, and Koreatown.

“Dear Mama, they're all about cooking, sustainably and healthy, and providing tasty food to something you wouldn't think would be tasty,” said Michelle Fausto, a business counselor at the Los Angeles Food Policy Council who helped run the events. “We really wanted to work with her because we saw it as a different way of cooking that would benefit the community.”

Flores made sure that the food they prepared in the cooking workshop was made of ingredients available to purchase at the small local stores.

“You don't always have access to a grocery store that's kind of conveniently close, and a lot of individuals don't have cars,” explains Flores. “So being able to utilize what you have at these stores is super essential.”

She is in the early stages of making a product line of vegan versions of cooking staples to sell at these local stores.

“We want to fill that gap for the essentials that are missing in the Latino community, as far as products like vegan Mexican sour cream,” said Flores.

Dear Mama is also a favorite vendor for events for marginalized communities, like the LGBTQ+ organization Cuties L.A. and plus-size flea market Thick Thrift Flea.

“Vegan Mexican food is, like, such a cool niche because it's so L.A. in multiple ways,” said Rachael Frank, the Co-Founder of Thick Thrift Flea. “Like there's such a big vegan food scene here. And also obviously, so many people have Mexican roots, [it’s]so important and cool to have that representation.”

Flores’ mother and grandmother were both single parents, so Dear Mama offers a single-parent discount of 15% off the check and a free meal for the children present.

“I think it was really important because kids are really picky. And, you know, I don't want you to necessarily spend your money on a taco, and they may or may not eat it. So we're more than happy and willing to donate and give part of that because we understand the struggle,” explains Flores.

Right now, Dear Mama is taking holiday tamale and pie orders and gearing up for what 2024 has to bring.