Rushed for dinner? New kind of takeout window opens in Pasco

Eat Hot Tamales has opened a walk-up window in Pasco, the latest in a series of milestones for a business that has grown far beyond owner expectations.

Based at Pasco Specialty Kitchen, Eat Hot Tamales opened its window in January.

The move is a practical nod to the fans who would call in orders, then park along Fourth Avenue while workers dashed out to their cars, said Paulina Perez, a Kennewick native who opened the tamale business with her mother, Guadalupe “Mama Lupe” Perez, last April.

The Perezes and the kitchen are working to transform the front room with the window into a coffee spot as well.

It’s all a long way from where the mother-daughter entrepreneurs began just a year ago.

The elder Perez has long made tamales in the tradition of Michoacan, Mexico, where she grew up.

But after she retired from Lamb Weston after 27 years, Paulina, her youngest, invited her to pursue her long-held dream of creating a tamale business.

The vision was small and manageable: They’d sell their tamales at Pasco’s Food Truck Friday, and deliver to customers who placed online orders on Thursdays.

Paulina’s goals were modest, but she took a businesslike approach to launching the startup.

She turned to Mid-Columbia Tri-Cities SCORE, which coaches entrepreneurs, and to Richland’s FUSE, a co-working community and business incubator, for advice. She learned about marketing and the importance of a polished, professional appearance.

She collaborated with a New York designer on Eat Hot Tamales’ vibrant logo. Its husk-wrapped pepper logo is used on business cards, lunch bags and even the delivery van Perez purchased for the business, the only debt she took on to launch.

Advisers steered her to the Pasco Specialty Kitchen. To Perez, who wanted to work out of a licensed, commercial kitchen, that was a no-brainer.

She standardized her mother’s informal family tamale recipe and made a few key changes. They dropped the traditional lard and made the business call to be generous with the meat and other fillings.

“Let’s not be stingy with the meat,” she recalled.

The clean, professional approach paid off and customers commented on the generous fillings in online reviews. More customers noticed.

Eat Hot Tamales quickly exceeded its original Food Truck Friday goal. It signed on to the Pasco and Richland farmers markets.

Perez said placing second at the Pasco Fiery Foods Festival was one of the highlights of the company’s first year, which saw the business grow to five employees.

For all the growth, Eat Hot Tamales is determined to remain a relatively small, family-owned business, albeit one that produces and sells 3,200 to 3,400 tamales a week, and more at Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and Dia de la Caldelaria on Feb. 2.

“I want to continue, and enjoy my mom. That’s all I want,” she said.

Eat Hot Tamales offers chicken, pork and a pepper-cheese version called rajas, as well as a vegan tamale made with beans and a vegetarian version with potatoes, green beans and corn.

The vegan and vegetarian options cater to customers from the Richland Farmers Market, she said.

The Eat Hot Tamales window is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Saturday, at 110 N. Fourth St., Pasco. It also delivers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For information about events and orders, visit eathottamales.com.

A British Girl in Prosser

A very British baker and chocolatier has opened a small retail shop inside Prosser’s Desert Winds Winery, 2258 Wine Country Road.

Jade Visser came to the U.S. 20 years ago, but she’s a newcomer to the Yakima Valley and is building a business around desserts.

She takes orders for custom cakes and other desserts. She’s also selling chocolates, English-style toffees and her husband’s line of masculine trail mixes — think Hunting Mix, Cabin Mix, Fishing Mix.

Jade’s will have its official chamber of commerce ribbon cutting at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

The shop operates in conjunction during winery hours, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Meet Kennewick’s urban winemakers

The wine-makers at the heart of Kennewick’s wine-themed Columbia Gardens project will take center stage during a dedication ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Friday, 421 E. Columbia Drive.

Bartholomew and Palencia are the first tenants of Columbia Gardens Urban Wine & Artisan Gardens, an economic development initiative of the Port of Kennewick to convert an industrial stretch of Columbia Drive into a visitor destination. The project was supported by the city of Kennewick.

The $3 million project includes room for the two wineries and a barrel storage facility. The city installed a system to neutralize wine production effluent so it can be discharged to the municipal wastewater system.

A future phase is expected to includes plans for a culinary school operated by Columbia Basin College.

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This story was originally published February 6, 2018 at 2:27 PM with the headline "Rushed for dinner? New kind of takeout window opens in Pasco."