Good Golly, Tamales!

Former Nomads, Molly’s Tamales Sets Up Shop

It ain’t easy being a tamale boss, but someone had to step up to the plate. After mastering recipes under stove lights, Clarissa Castill, the impresario of Molly’s Tamales, has taken their game to pros with the help of their husband, co-owner Shraz Mercier. After years of street hustling their goods, they’re building a masa empire to feed the fiends who need their tamale fix.

The journey wasn’t easy. Clarissa grew up in Cyprus, TX which is an unincorporated county within the vicinity of Houston. They came from Black and Hispanic parents and lived in a large household, reliant on a meager income to support everyone under the roof. This, of course, meant cooking big batches of inexpensive food, often traditional dishes like pozole and menudo that could heartily feed many mouths.

Clarissa learned the kitchen by swiveling their head between their grandfather Gerardo and watching PBS cooking shows. Gerardo was silly and aloof and improvised in the kitchen often, ignoring recipes and feeling out a dish for what he felt it should be. Clarissa had their creativity spurred by this kind of playfulness, but was also aware from watching the television chefs that sometimes you gotta measure ingredients for accuracy.

When they graduated, they moved up to Oklahoma City on a whim, hearing it was a cool place to live, and immediately fell in love. The food community, unique grocery stores, and culture struck them as vibrant and exciting. But, they were performing in the musical group “Bowlsey” and having trouble keeping a steady gig that accommodated a musician’s schedule, juggling noise sensitive neighbors during the week, and struggling to take off work for weekend gigs from low paying jobs serving the caffeine starved.

With the support of Shraz, they decided to hustle the tamales based on their grandparents’ teachings. With their iconic watermelon wicker basket, they’d hop from bar to bar, quickly building beat of hungry and ginblossomed late night patrons whose Pavlovian salivations would perk at the siren call of “TAMALES!!”

After years on the townie drunk circuit, Clarissa and Shraz graduated to their own spot in The Collective in Midtown with a professional kitchen opening up new possibilities for dishes, allowing them to expand from just tamales and burritos to elote and nachos. The tamales are now provided in heartier portions, but the classic sweet, spicy, and tangy green sauce that Shraz concocted is still the same.

They still make the late night rounds to surprise the night owls with warm comfort food, but, with Molly’s Tamales in an anchored place, getting that fix is easier than ever.

> Molly’s Tamales: 308 NW 10th St, Oklahoma City, (405) 439-3749