{"id":85445,"date":"2025-12-12T11:42:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/85445\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:42:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T11:42:21","slug":"san-antonio-tamaleros-set-to-compete-at-pullman-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/85445\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio tamaleros set to compete at Pullman Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Pullman Market <\/a>opened last year, Sonia Margarita Vasquez-Grizzle recognized a void. In a culinary space that featured a specialty grocer, a sourdough bakery and multiple restaurants, there were no tamales.<\/p>\n

There are now.<\/p>\n

Boxes of Vasquez-Grizzle\u2019s tamales, produced at Margarita\u2019s Tortilla Factory<\/a>, sit on the top shelf of Pullman Market\u2019s freezer case. You can buy them cold. Or you can get them fresh and hot at Pullman Market\u2019s Tamale Festival on Saturday, starting at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

Admission is free. Event organizers, however, request that you RSVP here<\/a> before attending.<\/p>\n

The festival will feature eight vendors in a Best Tamale competition: Carnita\u2019s Spot, Mezquite, Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery, Culinary Institute of America, Tamale Addiction, Chamoy City Limits, Chi Chi Birds Hot Chicken and Margarita\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The festival, which runs until 5 p.m., will also feature family-friendly activities curated by The DoSeum<\/a> and live music from DJ Caliente<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prices for individual tamals will range from $2 to $5, depending on the vendor. Tamale packages will also be available and vary in cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited for the return of tamales to Pearl with the inaugural Pullman Tamale Festival,\u201d said Michael Joergensen, Silver Ventures\u2019 chief marketing officer. \u201cIt\u2019s almost 15 years to the day of Pearl\u2019s first \u2018Tamales at Pearl\u2019 festival, which was also my first visit to Pearl with my family when we were new in town. I remember the energy of that day and how we experienced the community of Pearl and San Antonio and cannot wait for this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Pullman Market is hosting its first Tamale Festival on Saturday, a free family-friendly event featuring several local vendors. Credit: Courtesy \/ Casey Dunn<\/p>\n

Vasquez-Grizzle contends that her tamales stand apart. They contain no artificial flavorings, colors or preservatives. Her tamales are lard-free.\u00a0\u00a0They are not greasy. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes us different from everybody else is our clean label,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are non-GMO verified. We use avocado oil. Our tamales are 100 percent handcrafted. There are no machines. So it\u2019s truly a labor of love.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vasquez-Grizzle, 58, is an unlikely tamalera. She earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in fashion design from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years later,\u201d she said, laughing, \u201cI got into tortillas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long before that, though, she spent long days with her migrant-worker parents picking tomatoes in Florida. After her parents saved enough money, the family moved to Harlingen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Valley Girl,\u201d Vasquez-Grizzle said. \u201dMy mother made all the meals at home \u2014 tortillas and tamales \u2014 and I would help her. My mom taught me to make tamales.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a brief career in interior design, Vasquez-Grizzle founded Margarita\u2019s Tortilla Factory in Austin, where she produced 800 tortillas per hour in a one room operation. She relocated to Lockhart before moving to San Antonio in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two years later, the factory earned a positive review <\/a>from Texas Monthly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What will she be offering on Saturday?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have sweet and savory,\u201d Vasquez-Grizzle said. \u201cA sweet chocolate tamal and a pumpkin bliss. We\u2019ll also have a vegan black bean, cheese and jalapeno, green pork, red pork and green chicken.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all full of flavor and healthy \u2014 without compromising on taste.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Pullman Market opened last year, Sonia Margarita Vasquez-Grizzle recognized a void. In a culinary space that featured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[25108,40946,9105,742,8270,82,84,83,40947,40948,26549,14382,92,3028,6251],"class_list":["post-85445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-culinary-institute-of-america","tag-margaritas-tortilla-factory","tag-mezquite","tag-pearl","tag-pullman-market","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-silver-ventures","tag-sonia-margarita-vasquez-grizzle","tag-southerleigh-fine-food-brewing","tag-the-doseum","tag-top-story","tag-typedaily","tag-wc-500-750"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}