You’re probably already familiar with Oaxacan Tamaleo through its easily recognizable proprietor Leonor Banos-Stoute. If you’ve ever been to the Sunset Valley (formerly Westlake) farmers market or to their old location on Anderson between Burnet and Lamar, you may have seen her balancing a pot or vase on her head. While that’s the most visible symbol of the restaurant, it’s their amazing tamales and other fare that are the real reason to pay attention to them.
The old location was a small section of a convenience store and they only took cash. It always felt like a fly by night operation that might get shut down at any moment even though they lasted there for years. I noticed a couple of months ago that they’d vacated that location and wondered whether they’d simply moved or had gone out of business. Luckily, it was the former, as Statesman food critic, Dale Rice, apprently found out this weekend. I have to think that he’d been to the old location, but maybe not. The blog post doesn’t mention it.
They’ve recently moved to a new location on Highway 71 on the way to Bastrop. They’re roughly 11 miles east of the airport. While this location isn’t as convenient to central Austin, there isn’t much on the way between Bastrop and Austin at the moment, so they’re probably going to get a decent amount of walk-in traffic. If I don’t make it out to the new location before the holidays, I’m sure I’ll be trekking out there for some tamales come Christmas. We had all of the out-of-town relatives raving about them last year.
Image from Oaxacan Tamaleo
