Tamale season in San Antonio is serious business. In fact, it’s so bad that one popular attraction in the Alamo City has hired security guards to help manage the inevitable long lines throughout the holiday season.
A TikTok posted by Arianna Esquivel on Sunday, December 21, showed a uniformed Bexar County Sheriff’s Office deputy outside Delia’s store on San Antonio’s Northwest Side. In the video, the deputy lays down some ground rules for people waiting in line outside, telling them the restaurant is only open for pre-order pickup but will sell extra tamales to the public on a “very limited basis.”
“That being said, there are no guarantees … of what you’re going to get,” he said. “You stand here at your own risk. You may or may not get a tamale.”
The deputy’s presence appeared to be a precautionary measure rather than a reaction to any incident at the restaurant. A spokesperson for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office told MySA in an email, “The deputy is working off-duty, contracted and paid by the restaurant to ensure safety for the increased number of patrons during the holiday season.”
“We have to do better next year! Things are crazy at Delia’s house this season,” Esquivel wrote in the video, which has racked up more than 13,000 views in less than a day. Esquivel told MySA in a private message that she waited in line for about four hours. She said she didn’t pre-order, “but the fact is, even if you pre-order, you still have to queue to pick up/pay, and Delia’s is still messing up orders even though people ordered in advance.”
She wasn’t the first to notice the security guard’s presence. In a November post on the r/sanantonio Reddit subreddit, a local visited Delia’s (a chain owned by RGV) for the first time this season and was shocked by the wait times and guards.
“I called yesterday to place an order and pick it up today. The lady said she only had 3:00 and 5:00 [p.m.] The rest of the pickup. That was my first hint that this wasn’t going to be a normal takeout experience. ” wrote the user’s free tip. When it was time to pick up the food, the user was surprised that there was security in the restaurant, writing, “Did you think we were going to do an authentic tamale business without security guarding us?” The place had several security/police officers standing around to maintain order. “
The free consultation continued, “I went in and got in line. There was another security/police guy inside (nice, friendly) and I was like, ‘Yo, this is crazy, tamale security, what’s going on here?'” He said, ‘Haha, I know, come back on Christmas, that line will be miles long! ‘”
Suffice it to say, fulfilling a stress-free tamale season order is not for the faint of heart. MySA contacted Delia’s for comment via email and phone but had not received a response by the time of publication.
This article was originally published on ‘Things have to be done better’: Popular San Antonio tamale shop is turning heads.
