Market favorite Tamale Box finds permanent home in Kendall Yards

BY SYDNEY FLUKER

Enrique Mariscal never had a five year plan for his tamale stand — he just wanted to give Spokane the tamales it deserves. Spokane liked them so much it created the plan for him, landing them a permanent home in Kendall Yards with a second to come in Liberty Lake next winter.

Tamale Box is no stranger to wraparound lines; their market stands typically selling out by the end of the night. The tiny-but-mighty space tucked along Summit Parkway can only fit a handful of tables and a couple dozen people, so Mariscal held off on announcing the opening until 9 a.m. the day of — an hour before they opened.

“We wanted to make sure we were doing everything right so the customer’s experience would be legit; it wasn’t going to have too long of a line or whatnot,” Mariscal says. “It’s a whole different ballpark in this kitchen and we’re just figuring how things work back there, so we didn’t tell anyone until the day of. I don’t care about the sales that would have been made that day; what I care about is everyone leaving and having a good experience.”

The line wrapped around the corner all day, anyway.

Tamale Box is the only restaurant in Spokane to specialize in this traditional Mexican dish, made with a corn-based dough mixture and filled with meats, vegetables, beans or cheese. Mariscal says that people underestimate the labor that goes into making tamales, and because of that many families reserve making them for special holidays, like Christmas.

Mariscal’s tamales are tied at both ends, ensuring each tamale is generously stuffed with the filling of your choice. Each tamale goes for around $6 (two make for a filling meal), and options range from black bean to shredded beef, cheese and jalapeño to pork chile verde and chicken chile rojo. Tamale Box also offers a cheaper price for half dozen and full dozen deals, a popular option for family dinners.

His recipe originates from his mother, Candelaria, in La Peñita de Jaltemba, Mexico, who taught herself how to make the tamales she liked. Before the family moved to California, where Mariscal was born, his older brothers would sell their mother’s tamales around town, never failing to sell out. After relocating, word spread about her tamales and she began taking orders from people in her community.

“As a family, we always took pride in how she cooked, especially her tamales,” Mariscal says.

Given how important the recipe is to the Mariscal family and its popularity in Spokane, the biggest challenge with opening the restaurant was learning to trust others to make it.

“That’s the hardest thing; putting trust in a product that is so close to your heart, so close to your family and allowing others to have that recipe and serve those customers,” Mariscal says.

“But everyone’s been doing so well, so it’s getting easier.”

The market season was always handled by a small team of him and his fianceé, Lauren Murray, Candelaria (who came up from California every summer) and a couple of hired employees; an all-hands-on-deck environment where everyone pitches in. Even their now 9-year-old daughter, Mila, helped out at the markets where she could.

Finding a team that’s reliable and won’t cut any corners with the product without Mariscal’s involvement was a hard task, but an important one.

When the store first opened, Mariscal and Murray were working open to close — while Murray was eight months pregnant. The couple had barely hired on and trained new employees before baby Lucía was born.

Still, Mariscal and Murray moved forward, closing shop for one day after Lucía’s birth before returning to normal hours. Even during market season, through rain and excessive heat, Mariscal pitched the stand’s tent every week.

This reliability caught the eye of the Perry Street Market organizer, Karyna Goldsmith. When Mariscal lost his commissary kitchen toward the end of last season and went to withdraw from the last two market months, Goldsmith connected him with Greenstone, who developed the Kendall Yards neighborhood.

Since he signed on before construction began, Mariscal was able to work with Greenstone to bring his vision to life.

“We really love the priority [Greenstone] places on bringing quality local businesses to their communities and feel like we are surrounded with very supportive neighbors,” Mariscal says.

While the Tamale Box team skipped out on the farmers market season this year to focus on managing demand at their Kendall Yards location, Mariscal remains eager to meet new customers and share his family’s hand-wrapped tamale with the community for years to come.

TAMALE BOX
1102 W. Summit Pkwy, 
Spokane, WA

When you stop by Tamale Box, be sure to check out Murray’s ever-growing micro bottle shop, Coucou.

Natural wine is wine made with little to no intervention, the way it was made for thousands of years, and is meant to showcase the grapes, the terroir and the climate, which are constantly evolving.

“To me, the taste of natural vs. conventional wine is often the difference between eating fresh fruit and a spoonful of jam,” Murray says. “It tastes alive and refreshing, and doesn’t leave your tongue feeling like sandpaper or your head in a fog.”