There’s a reason most people only make tamales for special occasions. The traditional Latin American dish made of masa and various fillings like meat and cheese wrapped in corn husks is incredibly labor-intensive. There’s soaking. There’s kneading. There’s mixing. There’s filling, rolling, steaming, serving, and, finally, eating. It’s an absolute ton of effort that disappears in as much time as it takes to scarf down a couple of bites.
But when something this demanding is still being made from 8,000 B.C. to now, there’s a reason. A made-from-scratch tamale tastes divine. I mean that literally—ancient Mesoamerican civilizations offered tamales to the gods in religious ceremonies as well as enjoying them as part of their everyday meals. For 10,000 years, they’ve been passed down through generations, and when Isabel Rosales was growing up in Chicago, tamales were breakfast. They were home.
When she moved to San Diego nine years ago, she figured a border town would have plenty of good tamale makers. “But every time I would taste them, it didn’t remind me of home,” she says. “So one day, I just decided to make them.”
It wasn’t a success at first. But she kept at it, bringing them to her office to make some extra cash on the side and get some feedback from her coworkers. In 2021, she did her first tamale pop-up at Mujeres Brew House. “That’s where it started,” she explains. Isa’s Tamales was born.
She signed up for any small business event she could for a year, until she entered a tamale contest with the radio station Magic 92.5 and took home third place. “Everybody at work wanted tamales after that because I was on the radio,” she laughs. By 2023, Mujeres asked her to make tamales every Tuesday. “That helped me build my confidence, and it also helped me build my clientele.”
Despite getting busier and busier making tamales all year round for different pop-ups and private events, Rosales hesitated to quit her corporate job. She’s a single mother of three teenagers, and losing the predictability of a steady paycheck was a risk—one she wasn’t ready to take until her daughter asked her why she was so miserable at work all the time. “That really woke me up,” she says. “What am I teaching my kids?” In January 2024, she took the leap and started making tamales full-time.
When she’s not running Isa’s Tamales, Rosales is an outspoken advocate for victims of domestic violence (DV). She’s incredibly candid about her own experiences in the hopes of stopping the cycle that she went through and tragically claimed her mother’s life. “I wanted to be a voice for me and for her, because we never got justice for her, and I made it out,” says Rosales. Today, she’s an advocate for the state of California and volunteer for the Family Justice Center and One Safe Place in San Marcos, who helped her get back on her feet when her family needed it the most.
Eventually, she’d like to mix her tamale business with her advocacy work and open her own brick and mortar location. “I want to do it for women that never had jobs before, that always live in the DV environment at home, and they’re finally left and they want to regain their lives back and start something,” she says. It would be something she could pass on to her children, “because we built this together,” as well as a way for people to be able to find her on a more regular basis. “I want that next step,” she says. “I want a restaurant to call home.”
You can find Isa’s Tamales most Tuesdays at Sunny Grove Brewing Company in Santee, most Thursdays at Mujeres Brew House in Barrio Logan, and most Fridays at the Marina District Farmers Market, but she advises everyone to check her Instagram page for her calendar of monthly pop-ups.
San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events
LuckyBolt Launches A New Lounge
LuckyBolt first launched in San Francisco in 2011 as a healthy lunch delivery service, before moving to San Diego in 2014. Considering San Diego has more small farms than anywhere else in the country and LuckyBolt’s whole ethos is connecting small farmers directly with consumers, the move made a lot of sense. Since then, the concept has grown into a cafe, bakery, catering company, and meal prep service, and as of October 22, it’ll celebrate the grand opening of a new space called The Lounge at LuckyBolt.
Located next to its daytime café and bakery in Sorrento Valley, the whole vibe is chilling out and winding down, but with food and drinks that center around nourishment, health, and community, and sourced from local farms like Stehly Farms, J.R. Organics, Pasturebird, Rio Del Rey, and more. The space looks moodier than the average health-conscious eatery, and founder/head baker Kris Schlesser says they designed it specifically to feel like a lounge, not a restaurant or a bar. (Yes, it’s a matter of minutiae. I guess we’ll have to experience it to figure out the difference.)
Beth’s Bites
- Finally—a coffee shop that’s not opening in North Park! (No offense to the coffee shops in 92104. But dear God, there are people all over the county who like coffee just as much and yearn for their own local spots to enjoy.) Come Back Coffee is now open at 7424 University Avenue in La Mesa with a loosely Southern-inspired menu (think Waffle House meets coffee shop) with drinks like a key lime pie-inspired matcha and a full coffee and espresso menu. Y’all come back now… get it?
- Next door to Scrimshaw Coffee, Love Letters Pizza (formerly Somewhere Pizza) is looking oh-so-close to opening! Considering that pizza is my number one absolute favorite food in the entire world, it can’t open soon enough.
- I’m obsessed with coffee shop fall menus. Give me all the spicy, cinnamony, maple-y beverages there are and I’m a happy gal. I’m particularly eyeing Revolution Roasters’new lineup for autumn—apple cinnamon syrup with espresso, orange bitters, and milk? Rosemary syrup with espresso and milk over ice and topped with salted maple cold foam. Good lord. Who needs a PSL when there’s salted maple cold foam?! (No shade on PSL lovers out there—get one of each. I won’t judge.)
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