Holy Mole, It's Polole

The first thing most people think about their favorite restaurant is the great cuisine, a special ambiance or great service. Pozole has all three.

The waiters at Pozole look like a Chippendale review, they're tall, dark and handsome with bulging biceps and bronze skin. Their beautiful faces flash charming smiles while they wait on tables.

Pozole offers authentic Mexican cuisine that differs from the greasy Americanized version. The most amazing dishes are on their "lean cuisine" menu. The chef and owner, Jesse Acevedo, has designed new low-fat and vegetarian dinners that taste as good as the traditional cuisine and have only one to two grams of fat.

The Tacos de Pollo ($6.75) are made with marinated grilled chicken, red onions and red pimientos, all wrapped in two handmade tortillas with lettuce and salsa fresca.

For the vegetarian, the Burrito Californiano ($5.95) is made with tender cactus, pasilla peppers, tomatoes and roasted garlic in a green sauce, white Sonora beans and Mayan rice in a spinach tortilla. All the dinners run between $3.50 and $7.25, and the inexpensive price comes with large portions.

Sitting in the center of the restaurant is a macabre skeleton dressed in a teal sequin evening gown, a yellow sunflower hat, and red pumps. Candles line every ledge and cupids hide in the corners with corona beer bottles in their hands. The ceiling is painted to look like the sky at sunset, and the walls are colored bright red, purple, yellow and teal and covered in graffiti-style writing.

These are the same colors and religious artifacts seen in many Mexican homes, says Acevedo, who designed the look of the restaurant as well as the menu.

The decorations represent Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a Mexican holiday that celebrates death as a transition. It also seemed a fitting theme when he opened Pozole because of the AIDS epidemic that has become such a large part of the Castro's culture. One of the heart sculptures has "silencio = muerto, act up," (silence = death) written on it, an AIDS education slogan.

Acevedo moved to San Francisco in 1980 and opened Pozole 10 years later. He grew up in Michoacan, Mexico and his restaurant reflects his hometown style, as well as San Francisco's. "I came here for vacation," Acevedo says, "fell in love with San Francisco and never went back home."

Acevedo has opened two other restaurants in San Francisco but eventually sold so he could put more time into his music. He kept Pozole open because it is special to him personally. The restaurant is very social and has become a part of the Castro scene.

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