Don Francisco Galvan founded the brand more than six decades ago, and in 2021, the Povos family took over ownership of the local grocery store chain from the original Galvan family. Amapola offers specialty ingredients and signature items such as masa, tortillas and tamales. The deli section focuses on serving fresh traditional dishes, including carnitas, chicharrones, seafood salads, tamales, stews and soups.

Pozos said the expansion to Sylmar is driven by the strong Latino community in the region. They have had customers travel to their other stores from the Sylmar area in the past, and they wanted to bring a location to the community. The Sylmar location is the beginning of a more expansive rollout for the grocer this year.

“This year, we’re starting a very fast expansion across different locations in Los Angeles, and you can expect it’s going to be wherever we have Latino communities,” Pozos said. “We’re going to also come up with new concepts of tortillerias, with more focus on the traditional concept that came from Latin America.”