The fast-casual Mexican fusion restaurant Holy Molli has opened its doors in downtown Greenville, taking over the spot at 11 S. Main St. formerly occupied by Port City Java, right beside the Wells Fargo Center.
This makes the third Holy Molli location after owners (and married couple) Luis and Lydia Stark opened a spot on Woodruff Road and another in Spartanburg last year.
Specializing in food inspired by the Starks home in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, the setup of the restaurant will be familiar to patrons of Moe’s and Chipotle with their line-style ordering systems. It’s the ingredients and the offerings that will be different.
Sinaloa: Located in Northwestern Mexico, the state’s cuisine is unique for its variety of ingredients, especially seafood and vegetables, as well as the popularity of sushi.
“We realized that the Mexican cuisine that we have over here in the Southeast is usually the same thing: rigid,” Luis Stark said. “The food is really good, but it’s not imaginative and it tends to be the same thing. You sit down, get your chips and salsa, all the dishes are about the same with your refried beans and rice — when what we always knew Mexican food to be was so very varied and colorful, and that’s what we want to bring to the table.”
Both Starks have spent years in the restaurant industry as managers at chains like Chipotle and Panda Express.
“We were both restaurant operators. When you’re running a business like that for so long, you start realizing there’s nothing that couldn’t be done by people like us. We could do it ourselves,” Luis Stark said.
Holy Molli will also feature a specialty margaritas bar (although early customers will have to wait for that, as the Starks are still waiting on a liquor license).
The specialty dish on the menu is a custom-made Mexican sushi roll. Each roll is like a typical sushi roll, albeit larger and filled with Mexican ingredients. Then the roll is deep fried and sliced in pieces before being served.
“It’s all very authentic to where we’re from,” Lydia Stark said. “Taquerias on the street have sushi places, with people making sushi right in front of you. Those were one of the big things for us. We wanted to bring that here.”
Other dishes offered are burritos, bowls, salads, tacos, tofu, nachos, quesadillas, poke bowls and dessert churros, with base ingredients like chicken (regular and spicy), steak, crab, birrio grilled veggies, shrimp and slow-cooked pork, along with countless toppings and sauces.
Holy Molli’s downtown location will also be open as a late-night destination, serving food until 3 a.m. on the weekends.
Holy Molli pushes to redefine fast-casual Mexican in new downtown Greenville spot - Greenville Journal
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