Today is International Women’s Day and we are so proud to celebrate some of our favorite Women Owned brands!
From award-winning Roasted Chickpea Snacks, to tamales made with authentic Mexican sazón and only the freshest and highest quality ingredients available, our shelves are full of brands with women at the forefront that truly are history in the making!
Our name-sake Mollie Stone made a difference in people’s lives through her work in the food industry, and we celebrate these brands as they do the same.
Alicia’s Tamales Los Mayas
Alicia Villanueva, Founder & Owner
Born in Mazatlán, Mexico, Alicia Villanueva grew up making tamales with her mami and abuelita. She arrived in California in 2000, and soon started making and selling her tamales locally in the SF Bay Area.
She was accepted into the La Cocina program in 2010, and has since expanded her business to include: catering large events, providing meals for school lunches, and selling Alicia’s Tamales to natural and specialty retailers like Mollie Stone’s Markets!
Alicia’s full line of products focuses on quality and traditional ingredients. They are gluten-free and never contain preservatives, and even offer three vegan options.
Nixie
Nicole Bernard Dawes, Founder & CEO
Nicole Bernard Dawes is a pioneering entrepreneur who has built multiple award-winning, nationally distributed brands that have redefined what better-for-you food and beverage can be. In 2003, she founded Late July Snacks, one of the first brands to carry the USDA Certified Organic seal, and in 2019, she founded Nixie, the most delicious zero-calorie, zero-sugar beverages on the market.
With more than 30 years of product development experience, Nicole launched Nixie to shake up the beverage category with a bold mission: to eliminate sugar, single-use plastic bottles, and toxic forever-chemicals from consumers’ favorite beverages — without sacrificing flavor or fun.
Biena
Poorvi Patodia, Founder
Biena is the #1 leader and pioneer in bean-protein snacking, known for its award-winning Roasted Chickpea Snacks and one of the fastest-growing Edamame snack lines in the country. Founded in 2012 by Poorvi Patodia, a woman and minority entrepreneur, the brand began when she struggled to find snacks made from real, nourishing ingredients and decided to change that.
Today, Biena is redefining snacking with bold flavors, plant protein + fiber, and real food ingredients.
Alma de Cattleya
Bibiana Gonzales Rave, Owner & Winemaker
Alma de Cattleya is owned and operated by winemaker Bibiana Gonzales Rave. Bibiana has authored a fantastic journey in wine, having been named Wine Enthusiast’s 40 under 40 and the SF Chronicle Winemaker of the Year along the way.
Born and raised in Colombia, even though Bibiana had little exposure to wine culture, by the age of 14, she knew she would become a winemaker. In Colombia, she studied chemical engineering and business. She later moved to France to study viticulture and oenology. She earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Bordeaux, graduating with honors.
Bibiana had the opportunity to work with some of the best wineries in France and traveled to work harvests in South Africa. Before starting her own labels, in California she also worked at La Crema, Peay Vineyards, Au Bon Climat, Qupé and Lynmar Estate.’
Cattleya is the national flower of Colombia, and “alma” means soul. The Cattleya orchid graces the labels of the Alma de Cattleya wines. Everything about Bibiana and her brand speaks to quality, joy and attention to detail.
Mason Dixie
Ayeshah Abuelhiga, Founder
Ayeshah started Mason Dixie in 2014 to make comfort food clean and convenient. “Comfort” food shouldn’t mean settling for cheap, processed ingredients. She is a first generation American and proudly watched her immigrant parents serve quality comfort food at their small carry-out restaurant and convenience store.
In college, she craved that same comfort food, but the closest thing was fast food. No one in fast food cared about the quality of ingredients so she started by making a REAL biscuit and gave up her big corporate job to open a small restaurant that had mile-long lines and sold out daily.
Those same customers inspired her to make our biscuits available at home. She froze her dough, bought a vacuum sealer and started selling biscuits out of an ice chest.
Years later, Ayeshah is still finding ways to get more great comfort food on your table with her frozen breakfast sandwiches, just like the ones she served at the restaurant.
So go ahead! Butter that biscuit, indulge in that breakfast sandwich, and snack on those waffles!
Purely Elizabeth
Elizabeth Stein, Founder & CEO
Elizabeth started Purely Elizabeth in 2009. As a certified holistic nutrition counselor, she believes that when you eat better, you feel better. It’s that simple. But it wasn’t that simple — when she looked around at grocery shelves, the options were limited for nourishing food that people would actually enjoy. So she set out to create products that didn’t have a trade off between nutritious ingredients and culinary taste. Elizabeth wanted to create an effortless, enjoyable experience so that she could help people thrive on their wellness journey.
Sauce Goddess
Jennifer Reynolds, Founder & CEO
When Jennifer was a very small girl, her Dad began to make his own barbecue sauce because he really disliked what he found at the store. What he made was simple barbecue sauce (now known as Sticky Sweet) and it was delicious!
She had to get the recipe. His response was, “What recipe?” So they began a funny journey to get him to use actual measuring cups and created a recipe. Then her friends threw down a challenge, “Jen don’t get old and wonder what if you ever did something with that recipe for barbecue sauce”.
She started Sauce Goddess a month later with one recipe and added a spicier version (Sweet & Spicy) and went to market and the rest is delicious history!
Three Trees
Jenny Eu, Founder & CEO
It all started during childhood walks through the forest, where Jenny’s grandmother taught her to appreciate the healing power of nature and its nourishing foods. This deep-rooted belief in the earth’s bounty drove Jenny to seek better, cleaner eating options.
In 2012, armed with her grandmother’s wisdom and a clear mission, Jenny began crafting her own plant-based milks free from gums and additives.
What started modestly at local farmers’ markets quickly sprouted into Three Trees—a name that stands for purity, nourishment, and respect for nature.
J. Lassalle
Angéline Templier, Owner
Jules Lassalle established his family-owned Champagne house in 1942. When Jules Lassalle passed away in 1982 his wife, Olga, and their daughter, Chantal, took over the estate, upholding Jules’ high standards and progressively pushing the domaine to the next level.
In 2006 Chantal’s daughter, Angéline Templier, joined the estate as winemaker. Their tradition of “une femme, un esprit, un style” (one woman, one spirit, one style) holds true today more than ever.
