Tucson Tamale Launches Retail Marketplace in Restaurants

In an historic expansion that showcases a new lineup of house-made dishes by veteran Tucson chef David Valencia, Tucson Tamale Company today announced the addition of a retail marketplace to both of its local restaurants. In addition to the restaurants’ 15 signature tamales, guests can now choose from a rotating menu of more than a dozen new house-made dishes that are frozen and conveniently packaged for take-out.

The new dishes, conceived by veteran Tucson chef and Tucson Tamale consultant David Valencia, include a poblano spinach dip, poblano macaroni and cheese, Soyrizo bean dip, smothered green chile chicken burrito, and smothered red chile beef burrito.  Other chef-favorite creations include pork pozole, vegan pozole, and albondigas, as well as bread pudding made with Tucson’s Barrio Bread.

Valencia, who was born and raised in Tucson, brings his talents to the Tucson Tamale table having worked at local restaurants Ermanos, Maynard’s Kitchen, and Agustin Kitchen.

The new program also features more than 100 premium packaged items from local, regional, and international purveyors that were intentionally curated by Tucson Tamale co-founders Todd and Sherry Martin. 

Examples include several hot sauces from Tucson-based High Desert Sauce Company, a variety of nuts from Sunshine Nut Company which works with adult orphans in Mozambique, and stone-ground Mexican chocolate from Taza Chocolate, the first U.S. chocolate maker to establish a third-party certified Direct Trade Cacao Certification program. An entire spectrum of El Guapo spices is also available along with an assortment of popular Mexican candies. 

“The intention behind these new offerings was to provide more options to our customers, focusing on foods that were made with the same level of quality and spirit of sustainability that’s wrapped inside each of the four million tamales that we’ll make this year,” said Todd Martin. “Our criteria for their inclusion in the new marketplace are the uniqueness of the products, the manufacturers’ commitment to sustainability and the communities they serve, and the complementary nature of the products with our tamales as well as our new market meals,” he continued. “This commitment brings with it a host of new responsibilities for us and our staff, but it’s absolutely work worth doing.”

Both Tucson Tamale locations offer indoor and patio dining as well as take-away for all products including family bundles. The eastside location is at 7159 E. Tanque Verde Road, and the Oro Valley location is at 7286 N. Oracle Road. 

For additional information, please visit www.tucsontamale.com

About Tucson Tamale

Tucson Tamale was founded in 2008 by Todd and Sherry Martin and produces hand-made tamales using a family recipe handed down through generations of “a loud and large Mexican-American family.”  Now producing over four million tamales a year in 15 different varieties plus seasonal variations, Tucson Tamale can be found in 3,000 different stores in all 50 states.  The award-winning company prides itself on fresh, top-quality ingredients, a workplace environment filled with passion and authenticity from leadership to staff, and a dedication to creating the best of local Tucson tastes and flavors.