The Tamale

The Tamale is the last of several programmatic structures surviving [as of March 2022] on Whittier Blvd in the East Los Angeles area and, with the demolition of the Chili Bowl in Santa Monica, one of a dwindling number in the greater Los Angeles area. Not surprisingly, it opened as a Mexican restaurant in 1928. It had various owners, but continued to be a restaurant until 1984 after which the interior was split in half. For years a beauty shop operated on one side and a dental lab in the other. It was vacated in 2016, remodeled and repainted and put up for sale in 2017. It went into tax default in 2020. Some sources indicate that it is listed in the California Register of Historical Resources, but a search on the state website doesn’t return a result.

East Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt