I’ve been craving comfort food but comfort food is usually the food made by my friends and family: biscuits, my sister’s pesto, my boyfriend’s breakfasts emerging from the oven to temper my hangover. Obelisco’s pozole is always something I think of in cold or gloomy times, but until last week I hadn’t actually met the chef and owner.

Her name is Leticia Chavez, she’s funny, warm and has managed this Fruitvale restaurant for almost ten years. Leticia is from the Puerto Vallarta area and she grew up working in her family’s restaurant and eating food straight from el rancho.

“I was raised in a small place and my dad had a ranch, so the quality of the ingredients were always good. The first time I tried a hamburger in the United States…” she made a face and waved her hand as if avoiding a bad smell.

After arriving to the Bay Area, Chavez actually opened a skincare business, but was called back to cooking by her disappointment with the variety of Mexican food in the area.

“I kept hearing people talk about how greasy and unhealthy Mexican food is,” she said. “A lot of people here never travel to Mexico, so they imagine our cuisine as limited to tacos and burritos. But Mexican food can be diverse, and there’s a wide range of cuisine from one part of the country to the other.”

So Chavez opened her own restaurant in 2007, sourcing Niman Ranch meats and Mary’s organic chicken, and organic corn which is sent to a mill in San Leandro just for her masa. The handmade tortillas are a warm yellow and thick. Not all her other ingredients are organic, though, due to cost constraints.

My favorite on the menu is the pozole, which is available in red, green and white. The white, which can be brightened with a fiery side of habanero chile, is emblematic of Leticia’s food.

“It doesn’t always have to be spicy,” she said. “I like cooking with just enough so people can taste all the flavors and add more if they want.”

Besides the pozole, the albondigas (a stew with meatballs) is straight from her mom’s recipe collection. And while there are daily specials, the secret is to come on Wednesdays when she always makes something different, usually regional dishes like pipian, moles, borrego, or barbacoa. There’s beer on draft, agua frescas, and usually a dairy free coconut flan.

Leticia says in 2017 there will be a new dinner menu, and I expect there to be some comfort dishes on that menu too.

(Note: Obelisco was previously named Taco Grill and located on the other side of the Fruitvale Village.)