Mil Sabores: Birria Tacos, Arepas, and Mexican + Venezuelan Classics in Bridgeport

Arepas here are STACKED

Edwin Mondragon, who co-owns the popular Mexican – Venezuelan mashup Mil Sabores in Bridgeport, credits his mother’s mole as his first taste of the food service industry. He recalls memories of packing mom’s mole in plastic pint containers, filling up his backpack, and selling it, as a family, to customers and stores who sought out the homemade Mexican sauce.

Unfortunately, a memory is all it is. “I don’t have the recipe and I never learned how to make it,” he says. “If I see mole, I still try it to see if it’ll be the same.”

“I do the prep, cleaning, and shopping, and she cooks,” Mondragon says about the duties in the restaurant. “If ingredients are more expensive I won’t cut corners. If it’s not up to my standards, I will not serve it to my customers.”

While his family’s mole recipe may be lost, Mondragon, and his wife, Yohana, have created several successful recipes, minus the mole, at Mil Sabores, a food truck that blossomed into a storefront.

At 15 years old, Mondragon started working in restaurants as a dishwasher, runner, busboy, barback, prep cook, “salad guy,” and manning the grill station.

All of those various restaurant jobs of course led Mondragon to becoming an auto mechanic.

Pabellon (shredded beef, plantains, rice, beans, shredded cheese, over easy egg, avocado, and an arepita) is a traditional Venezuelan platter and Mil Sabores makes a fine one. If you don’t want beef, get it with pernil (pork) or shredded chicken. They also make homemade agua frescas like passion fruit and a refreshing horchata.

But the idea to start a food truck business was a collaborative effort between him and Yohana, who was a teacher’s assistant before Mil Sabores became a brand. “She can cook anything!” he says. “Everything I crave, she can make it. Dominican, Peruvian, Puerto Rican, Mexican, even Italian pastas. You name it, she can do it. She’ll take a recipe and perfect it. She never fails.”

Take Yohana’s love of cooking, Edwin’s love of eating, and the fact that they love to travel all over to eat, Mil Sabores started to become a goal for this husband and wife team that formerly lived in Queens.

Empanada operada stuffed with shredded beef, black beans, plantains, shredded cheese, and avocado.

Further inspiration to start a business came after a trip to the Oyster Festival in Norwalk.

“We took our kids to it (Oyster Festival),” Mondragon says. “In New York you see a food truck on every corner, but Connecticut wasn’t as popular in terms of a food truck presence then. I thought, if we could do it, and get it into a festival, we could do great.”

Not long after, he started to refurbish a 1985 food truck in his spare time with help from a mechanic that he hired privately.

Two years later, in 2019, Mil Sabores, that translates to “thousand flavors,” was born.

Cachapa! This maize flour corn “pancake” is another classic Venezuelan dish that can be stuffed with just about anything. Typically you’ll find them with melted queso de mano, similar to mozzarella, then topped off with crema and more shredded cheese. The menu at Mil Sabores is stuff the Mondragons have tried in other places that they like, but felt they could improve upon. Edwin referenced the Mexican style tortas he grew up eating in Queens as inspiration for the ones made at his restaurant. Keep scrolling for that beautiful torta!

Most often, you’d find Mil Sabores parked in Norwalk in the vicinity of Evarito’s and the now shuttered craft beer bar Spigot, outside of the Norwalk Public Library, and in various locations in Bridgeport and Stratford.

It was in SoNo where the Mondragons (now Stratford residents) built up a loyal customer base that kept coming back for the then Mil Sabores signature arepas, a staple in Yohana’s Venezuelan culture.

“At the beginning, arepas were the star,” Mondragon says. “We kept them very authentic. I did my homework and research on arepas, and I asked my mother-in-law for advice, too. And we started doing some fusion with Mexican flavors by using pico de gallo and stuff like that. The Mil Sabores arepa (pernil, sweet plantains, avocado, shredded cheese) was and still is a big seller. It’s salty, sweet, and creamy. I try to come up with creative things, and it’s why you don’t see basic arepas on the menu.”

But if arepas were Mil Sabores’ “original star,” what put them on the map were their birria tacos. And no, they didn’t hop on the birria trend, Mil Sabores get a lot of credit when it comes to being one of Connecticut’s first to sling deeply flavorful shredded beef and cheese griddled tacos with a sidecar of beefy consommé dip.

Unlike his mother’s lost mole recipe, this one got passed down.

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“Years ago on my birthday, my Uncle Pancho made them,” Mondragon says. “He’s from Michoacan where birria is authentic and popular. I’m from Puebla where it’s all about mole. If you go to Michoacan, they barely know what mole is. When I tried the birria, I said, ‘Wow! This is good!’ And I saw a few food trucks with birria in Queens and thought it was a good idea. But my uncle wouldn’t be in the kitchen. He doesn’t like being cooped up inside. He’s a landscaper and likes to be outdoors and free. He gave us the recipe and my wife practiced making it.”

A few tidbits from Uncle Pancho’s recipe calls for a four-beef mixture of slow cooked chuck, shank, short rib, and shoulder to develop that rich flavor from the bone and from the fat marbled short ribs. Plus, there’s scratch made vinegar that’s a key ingredient in the braise, and there’s beer in there, too, in the form of Corona Familiar.

And while the birria secrets stop there, the end product resulted in special “Birria Sundays” in 2020 that further made Mil Sabores a must-visit food truck.

Birria, though, wasn’t just in taco form at Mil Sabores.

“Customers would tag me on social media if they were elsewhere and saw birria pizza, nachos, and ramen and told me we should start doing it,” Mondragon says.

They did all of those birria things—including ramen using the Mexican brand Tapatio Ramen to keep it authentic Mexican—in addition to a birria platter (with rice, refried beans, and tortillas), and in a torta, quesadilla, and wrapped in a burrito.

Tale of two birria tacos. Left - birria, cilantro, and onion. On the right? Birria quesitaco with cheese. Now you know the difference.

Instead of the small side of consommé, upgrade to birria ramen! Dip your tacos in this!

Then dig into that bowl of birria ramen!

All of the truck’s success led the Mondragons to open a physical restaurant at 2043 Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport that opened on Taco Tuesday on November 16, 2021, offering all of their popular dishes and more since a kitchen equals way more capabilities.

As for the truck, it’s parked in back of the restaurant, and if they can hire and train the proper staff, they’d love to get back to a neighborhood near you, private events, and festivals.

Mondragon also mentioned that he’s slowly looking at spaces to open more Mil Sabores locations if it makes sense and if staffing issues turn around. Our fingers are crossed, but in the meantime, visit them in Bridgeport.

*** After publication, we learned that Mil Sabores will open a second location “soon” in Black Rock, right across the street from Fire Engine Pizza ***

2043 Fairfield Avenue; Bridgeport
Mil Sabores Facebook
Instagram @milsaboresct
203.345.2747