“We’ve never been a sit-down restaurant,” says co-owner Osbaldo Hernandez, who started Frelard Tamales in 2015 with his husband Dennis Ramey. The couple had noticed a lack of tamales in the north part of Seattle, and set about trying to fix that. (Their first stop was to consult with Eva, Osbaldo's mother, who was already selling tamales on the east side; they needed her advice and also promised that they wouldn't muscle in on her territory.) Since Frelard's launch five years ago, they’ve grown from selling 2,000 tamales in 2015 to 100,000 in 2020. MATT BAUME