Tina Tamale acquires local mobile push-cart and transporter!

Oakland, Calif. (January 5, 2012) – Tina Tamale Ramos of La Borinqueña Mex-icatessen has upgraded her mobile pop-up stand to a push-cart & transporter. In the past few years, the Tina Tamale Pop-up Stand has grown from doing just a few special events a year including the OMCA Days of the Dead Community Celebration to weekly events like Bites Off Broadway, Oakland’s first reoccurring food pod.

In December 2011, Ramos found out that a local mobile pushcart and transporter truck was for sale. Looking at this as the ideal way to expand her mobile food vending business, she secured the purchase from Elisabeth August & Corey Stowe of Guerilla Grub.

The Tina Tamale Pop-up Push-cart will now be able to do lunchtime service for just a couple of hours due to the quicker & easier set-up with the ability to serve tamales with magical ingredients like love and lard more often & in more places!

The transporter currently being transformed with amazing art from Joaquin Alejandro Newman & Eduardo Pineda of Forrealism. With a re-vamped menu, Tina Tamale looks forward to the debut her upgraded mobile set-up in February 2012.

The recent passing of the new Oakland mobile food policy allowing for more food pod events (that’s three or more mobile food vendors congregating) has also opened the window for more opportunity. During the press conference for the new policy, Ramos committed to upgrade her set-up, hire more Oaklanders and generate more tax revenue if given more events to vend throughout the year.  This expansion is Ramos keeping her word.

Ramos is honored to be partnering on a couple of Tina Tamale launch events with Chef Peter Jackson as well as neighbors, Steve & Marilee Shaffer of Urban Legend Cellars, located in Jack London District. Look for these events and more throughout the month of February. More information about these events can be found on the IndieGoGo campaign here.

Tina Tamale is excited to continue helping our local, living economy grow stronger. Revenue from mobile sales will be used to purchase many ingredients for their authentic Mexican-American food from local, sustainable vendors. Tina Tamale Ramos and crew will continue to live and work in the amazing diverse city of Oakland. Ramos will continue to volunteer time and other resources to local non-profits. Ramos is not only a member of Oakland Grown, a movement supporting independent businesses & artists; she is also a founding member of the Oakland Gown steering committee. Local, indie & community are not just buzzwords to Tina Tamale; it’s a way of life!                

More about Tina Tamale:
The Tina Tamale Pop-up Push-cart and catering serves authentic Mexican American foods. Specializing in tamales with both traditional and fillings with a twist, Tina Tamale strives to showcase local foods both identifying with her cultural roots  as well being proud of the diverse place Oakland, her hometown, has become over the years. To find out where Tina Tamale will pop-up next: “like us” on Facebook.com/tinatamale, “follow us” on Twitter.com/tinatamale or subscribe to our blog at TinaTamale.com.                                                    

More about Tina Tamale Ramos: 
Tina "Tamale" Ramos is a third generation co-owner and spokesperson of her family's business, La Borinqueña Mex-icatessen, in operation since 1944. She is also the owner/founder of Tina Tamale Pop-up Push-cart and Catering. Tina is a resident/merchant of Old Oakland as well as an indie business and community advocate. She is currently active with Old Oakland Neighbors, 10,000 Steps Oakland & the Oakland Grown marketing campaign. Online she can be found at TinaTamale.com.

La Borinquena in Old Oakland, and a Tina Tamale podcast :: Grassroutes Travel

 Hola Amig@es,

I was interviewed by the lovely & talented Serena Barlett of Grassroutes Travel and the pod cast just went up! I've know Serena for years now and while her travel sometimes take here away from Oakland, this is the place she loves and calls home.

Serena is truly a local, indie nerd like myself and we're always bumping into each other around town. She is one of the Oakland Grown peeps that is helping portray Oakland by shining a bright spotlight on the people, places and things Oaklanders are doing. She is awesome like that!

She is gearing up to do a series of Oakland food tours and makes a stop here at Tamale World homebase, La Borinquena Mex-icatessen.

Photo by Serena Barlett of Grassroutes Travel, an Oakland grown member

Here's a snippet:
Tina Tamale, as she’s known, is synonymous with La Borinquena, one of the oldest continuously-operating businesses in Oakland, founded by her grandmother Rosa, almost 70 years ago. It’s a “mexicatessen” – a casual cafeteria-style restaurant that, in addition to the daily menu, sells many Mexican staples like handmade tortillas, at least six types of dried peppers, luscious goat’s milk chocolate spread, fresh chicharrones, lard-fried tortilla chips, dried hibiscus, and tamarind pods. If you get there in the morning you’ll see an influx of port workers coming in for their “dinner” after working a long shift while extended family – either blood relatives or employees who have worked here for dozens of years, no discrepancy – cart out that day’s tortillas, so recently made that condensation forms inside the plastic bags...

See the full post and hear the podcast here