Wash. Restaurant With 1 Menu Item Wins Top Food Award

UNION GAP, WA - One of the best restaurants in the U.S. is located in tiny Union Gap along the Yakima River, and there's only one item on the menu: tamales. The tamales at Los Hernandez are so good, the restaurant won a James Beard American Classics award, which are given to restaurants "that are cherished for their quality food, local character, and lasting appeal."

Founder Felipe Hernandez opened Los Hernandez in 1990 using a recipe given to him by his sister. Hernandez, his wife, and his daughter and son-in-law still make the tamales by hand today.

Los Hernandez was nominated for the award by the public, but James Beard Foundation restaurant critics and food writers gave out the American Classics awards. Here's what they had to say about Los Hernandez:

Union Gap is the retail hub of rural Yakima County and home of Los Hernandez, where handmade tamales are the sole menu items. In 1957, Felipe Hernandez immigrated from Piedras Negras in Coahuila, Mexico, to eastern Washington to work in agriculture. Some 40 percent of U.S.-grown asparagus is cropped in Washington, much of it by Hispanic farmworkers in the Yakima Valley. He opened Los Hernandez in 1990, using a recipe adapted from his sister Leocacia Sanchez’s tamales. Today, Hernandez and his wife June, along with daughter Rachel Wilburn and her husband Dion Wilburn, begin by milling dried corn to make masa. Chicken and pork tamales are available year-round. From mid-April to June, production shifts to a pepper jack and asparagus combination that makes the most of the short-lived local crop.

Next time you're in the Yakima area, you can grab a Los Hernandez between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily.

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