cold tamale, hot tamale

These San Antonio tamales are so delicious they had to make them twice...in Austin

Delicious Tamales is opening a second location in Austin and shipping tamales in to be cooked fresh.

Delicious Tamales/Facebook

Delicious Tamales, a San Antonio restaurant, already has one Austin outpost on East Oltorf street, but its first year in business has been so successful that another one is coming. The second Delicious Tamales will open at 1700 West Parmer Lane (near Metric Blvd) on March 2.

“Since we opened our first Austin location a little over a year ago at 1931 E. Oltorf, the response has been overwhelming, and customers have been asking us to open another location to the North,” said owner and president Valerie Gonzalez. ”After months of searching and several more months of construction, we are excited to begin providing families and businesses to the North with a more convenient location to buy fresh, authentic tamales all year round.”

Nothing can beat a simple pork tamale, but just to spice things up, this restaurant offers 13 permanent flavors. They're all wrapped in real corn husks in San Antonio, then shipped and cooked fresh at each location — that's 1,800 pounds of masa leaving the San Antonio kitchen each day. They can be purchased hot, or frozen to cook at home.

Best sellers include pork, chicken, and jalapeño-bean, while more adventurous and special diet-conscious options include a sweet blend with coconut, raisins, and pecans, or a Southwestern vegetarian blend with corn, black beans, and red bell peppers. Talk about being wrapped up in it — the entire menu is tamales.

Service starts at noon on opening day with a ribbon cutting by the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Although Delicious Tamales was born in San Antonio, Gonzalez and all six of her siblings went to the University of Texas at Austin. Her daughter, Herlinda Lopez, now serves as Vice President of the family business. It reaches out to the community with a veteran meal program, discounted tamales for reselling at school, church, or other group fundraisers, and a presence at local events.

More information about Delicious Tamales, including national shipping links, is available at delicioustamales.com.

tamales delicious tamales openings new restaurants

Back to the Plow

Homey Austin jam and bake shop closing and returning to farmers market

Confituras/Instagram

Confituras Little Kitchen is closing its brick-and-mortar store, but feeling optimistic about the future.

A famers market find is returning to its natural environment after six years in a brick-and-mortar location. Confituras Little Kitchen, which specializes in locally sourced preserves, is closing its jam and biscuit shop after service on Sunday, December 22. However, it will continue selling goods at the Barton Creek Farmers Market and via retailers.

Confituras announced the change in a newsletter to its customers in December. The letter called the news "bittersweet."

"Although the brick and mortar will no longer be, the good news is that this will be a fresh new start for us – we are bursting with energy and creativity at the thought of being back out in the community where it all started for confituras," it said.

The kitchen is closing because the lease is up, and the team has decided to "give up the chase." The newsletter emphasized the ups-and-downs of business over the past several years — ones that were chaotic for just about any business, let alone a small, fairly niche food operation.

"So much has happened since we decided to open a brick + mortar – a wonderful kickstarter fundraiser, THE PANDEMIC, the AFTER-EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC, and an ever growing city," the letter says. "We tried so very hard but never really got our footing. We know we are not alone, many small business are in the same boat. We renewed our lease during the pandemic because we were hopeful we could make it work - the changing times had other ideas."

Finally, it shared how customers could keep enjoying Confituras creations:

The Barton Creek Farmers Market is open at 2901 S. Capital of Texas Hwy. every Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm.
A list on confituras.net compiles retailers including Royal Blue Grocery, Farmhouse Delivery, and Antonelli's Cheese Shop.
Jam share and Table22 subscription customers will have more instructions coming soon about picking up their goods in January at the same space, 2129 Goodrich Ave.
Customers may also reach out to inquire about continuing to order meals directly.

The kitchen also hosted frequent events and workshops, but the letter did not address this aspect of the business.

A shorter message shared on Instagram has inspired 63 comments so far, five days later. Customers eulogized the shop for its community feel and providing a sense of regularity during the height of the pandemic thanks to weekend pick-ups.