“I knew ‘Steve Tamale’ wouldn’t have the right ring ... so I came up with Tommy Tamale,” Barker said.
He eventually shifted to selling tamales from a booth at the Grapevine Farmers Market. Three days a week for five years, customers could find him there with his tamales. Along the way, he and his wife, JoAnn Barker, decided to open a small storefront in Grapevine that they referred to as The Shack.
Hayden Adams and the Barkers’ other grandchildren helped out.
“Grammy always said Poppy’s goal is that Tommy Tamale will become a household name, and I think it is there,” Adams said.
There are now Tommy Tamale locations in Grapevine, Coppell and Keller. Barker said his wife, two granddaughters, two grandsons and a son-in-law all work at Tommy Tamale.
Adams is the manager of the Keller location, which opened in November 2020. She said customers provide rave, albeit hushed, reviews of their tamales.
“We get a lot of customers whose grandma makes them, and they say, ‘These are better than my grandma’s, but don’t tell her I said that,’” she said. “That’s a really satisfying thing.”
Customers can order from a wide variety of tamales as well as bowls, nachos, quesadillas and more items with tamales incorporated into them.
In 2021, Tommy Tamale got top billing on Yelp’s top 25 spots for tamales in Texas. Barker said that honor means a lot because “the customer said that.”
“Tamales are so labor-intensive—we pride ourselves on delivering the best tamale out there,” Barker said.
Tommy Tamale, 208 N. Main St., Keller. 817-398-3500. http://tommytamale.com Hours: Mon.-Thu. 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Sun. closed
