Today we’d like to introduce you to Balderas Tamale Factory. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Michael and Juany the owners of Balderas Tamale Factory started cooking tamales in their home and selling them on the streets along with their daughters Alyssa and Arianna in Houston, Texas. With the heat in Houston the vehicle they used was kind enough on some days for the A.C. to work, but they continued to sell them. Michael had faith they would sell out and they did, and the next day, and the day after that. Soon that was not the only thing selling out. Their stove was also going out, and their home smelled like spices. They both came to a decision to open up the first factory. Not long after that, they opened up and made it official “Balderas Tamale Factory” on Grant Rd. A small space with bar stools, a window that looked into the kitchen, and walls covered in sheet metal. A space that still has the same layout today and is well known. Within the nine years of opening the restaurant on Grant Rd they expanded several times and because the customers deserved better larger seating area and more workspace for the crew to add more menu items; they started from scratch building bigger and better on Jones Rd. While much was new, rest assured the menu items and taste stayed the same.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
2019 was a momentous year for the Balderas Family. Most significant was that, after a brief illness, our beloved founder, husband, and father, Mike Balderas passed away in April. We were uncertain if the business would remain open, he was the tippy top of the triangle and we always ran everything by him. We had many people requesting to purchase the business and customers asking if we would still remain open. We were extremely grateful that our father/husband shared his knowledge with us, and we soaked it up like a sponge. So we took the challenge, you need someone to push you and not pull you back and that was our father/husband he always pushed us. After he passed, we pushed ourselves to keep his legacy alive. Also, through our faith in God we also made it through the biggest and most difficult transition we have ever done. Our father/husband was wise in so many ways and prepared us to continue to fulfill his dream to make Balderas Tamale Factory the standard by which all others are assessed. We are proud to be well underway toward his goal.
One of the biggest obstacles we went through and we feel we can speak for all was Covid ’19. We had orders ready to be delivered from our food vendors, food prepped, and appointments for several project we were going to release in 2020, which we are now finally releasing them in 2021. Covid ’19 is for sure to go down in school history books that kids will read years from now. We kept everyone on board and gave them as many hours as the restaurant could afford. Once we picked back up again, we gave everyone a raise, we are nothing without our team and it is important to surround yourself with a team that you can trust.
We faced many challenges but with Covid, we noticed MANY items we use at the restaurant not only have many shortages which New York Times posted an article “How the World Ran Out of Everything.”; but also many products went up in price substantially. In the many years that our mother has been purchasing dry goods and meat for our tamales she has never seen this happen. In exploring ways to reduce our cost, we tried less expensive products and found that they do not meet our standards of quality and taste. So it broke us when we had to raise our prices, we have some loyal customers that know the amount of their order down to the penny.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We manufacture Tamales, and we also have a restaurant that makes uniquely created recipes from San Antonio, Tex-Mex food!
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
To see the smile on customer’s faces when we hand them their tamale order. When they tag us on social media with their families at the restaurant enjoying their meals. Which is why our motto is “Unwrap a bundle of happiness today!” When the holidays hit and customers order their tamales, we had a women mention to us one year she came down from London to visit family and was taking tamales back with her to London.
Pricing:
- Pork, Hot Pork, Chicken, & Bean and Cheese $14.50 (w/out tax at the moment)
- Beef and Hot Beef $14.75 (w/out tax at the moment)
Contact Info:
- Email: infobalderastamalefactory@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balderastamalefactory/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/balderastamalefactory
Image Credits:
Photo of the four of us, Community Impact News Paper took the photo. All other photos were personally taken.
