Los Hernandez

Felipe Hernandez's family immigrated from Piedras Negras in Coahuila, Mexico, on the Texas border, to work in agriculture in Eastern Washington's Yakima Valley in 1957.^[1][2][3] Hernandez worked for Montgomery Ward for nearly two decades; in 1990 Hernandez and his wife June opened the restaurant.^[1][4]

The restaurant serves only tamales.^[1] The recipe is based on that of Hernandez's sister, Leocaldia Sanchez.^[1][2] The restaurant mills its own corn to produce the masa for the tamales.^[2][3] Production is seasonal, with an asparagus tamale the focus during the area's major spring harvest.^[1][5][6]

In 2018 the restaurant was named one of America's Classics by the James Beard Foundation.^[7][8] The Seattle Times in 2015 called the restaurant's tamales "destination tamales", noting the guest book for the restaurant nearly three hours from Seattle listed visitors from Argentina, China, and England.^[2] Afar called it "traditional Mexican cuisine at its finest level of execution".^[9]