Cenaduría Doña Tere opens at Mercado González
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González family matriarch Doña Teresa Reynoso de González always had one question for anyone who visited her home.
“Before she would say hi or anything she would ask, ‘did you eat yet?’” said Sergio González, director of customer journey at Northgate Market.
Don Miguel González Jiménez and Doña Teresa Reynoso de González opened the first Northgate Market in Anaheim in 1980, converting an old liquor store into a grocery store.
Today, the family operates more than 40 stores in California, including Mercado González in Costa Mesa, which revolutionized the way Orange County shoppers interact with grocery stores when the supermarket and Mexican-style indoor mercado opened in 2023.
González, who is also one of Doña Tere’s 53 grandchildren, said the spirit of his grandmother’s hospitality is behind the newest pozole focused puesto at Mercado González, called Cenaduría Doña Tere.
“Pozole is a big part of our culture and we wanted to take pozole to the next level, ” González said.
Mercado González already features a puesto dedicated to the family patriarch, Carnitas Don Miguel, which serves Michoacán-style carnitas made using the same recipe the founder used at the original Anaheim market. A puesto inspired by grandmother’s cooking seemed like the appropriate way to present pozole.
“She was the matriarch who really brought the whole family together. It was at her house on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays that she would open up the doors and there would be anywhere from 30 to 50 people on a given night visiting her house,” said González. “Her idea was to host as many people as possible and have a table where people could get together.”
A grand opening ceremony on July 16 welcomed the new puesto with an official “Ringing of the Bell,” a tradition inspired by towns throughout Mexico where the sound of a bell calls people together.
Cenaduría Doña Tere specifically celebrates “la cena,” or dinner. While Southern California has plenty of Mexican cantinas and taquerias, the cenaduría is lesser known concept stateside. Typically these small, family-owned and operated neighborhood spots serve comfort meals and snacks in a late night setting. The menu usually features platos of flautas, sopes and tostadas.
“If you go to Central Mexico, places like Jalisco, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Michoacán, these are all major cities that have cenadurías,” said González. “Cenaduría have very simple menus and when you think about why people go to cenadurías, it’s because they want a home cooked meal that taste home cooked and they want it in a way that is fast.”
Cenaduría Doña Tere hews to the cenaduría tradition with a tight menu dedicated to platos or dinner plates and pozole, a hearty Mexican soup made with hominy and served with garnishes like diced white onion, shredded cabbage, sliced radishes and tostadas for dunking into the rich broth.
“One of the most popular items here is the pozole rojo,” said Brayan Toledo, team leader for Cenaduría Doña Tere. “The base of the pozole is where all the flavor comes from and we make it in house using chiles guajillos, chiles California and chiles de arbol.”
Cenaduría Doña Tere serves pozole verde with chicken and pozole rojo with pork and the option to add specific pork cuts like pata (pigs feet) and cabeza (pork head.) Sizes range from individual portions at $15 to paquetazo or family packages for $70. Large tables meant to accommodate multigenerational families dining together line the wall near Cenaduría Doña Tere.
“We have had a lot of people coming up to the register to thank us and congratulate us,” Toledo said. “They know that we are creating memories for them.”
Other popular items include crunchy, chicken flautas topped with cabbage, crema, cotija cheese and salsa and sopes de lomo, a blue corn sope topped with braised pork loin.
Since Mercado González first opened, the Northgate team has continued to invest in the space by evolving with new offerings, González said.
“We’ve been open close to three years now and it is very much the spirit of the organization to always be asking, ‘what can we do better?’” González said.
In mid-August, Mercado González will open Casa Libre, a cafe pouring coffee from Mexican-origin coffee beans roasted in-house.
“That project is year in the making and really goes back to identifying what are the needs of our guests,” González said. “There are guests that like coffee already made and there are guests that like to buy good, quality, coffee beans.”
Nearby, the restaurant space that formerly housed Maizano is now home to Pradera, which serves a Mexican inspired brunch menu.
“They are open seven days a week and we are really happy to have them as part of the team,” González said.
González said if guests visit Mercado González every week or only once every six months, there will always be something new to explore.
“It’s not just about the products, its about the way people feel when they enjoy the product,” González said. “That is really what we are after.”
Cenaduría Doña Tere is located at 2300 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa. For details on all the puestos, go to northgatemarket.com.
