A Wilson’s hot tamale is piping hot, shiny with grease, and packed with garlic, juicy ground beef, herbs and spices. As for that cornmeal wrapper, it’s mealy and sweet, a perfect complement to the innards. They are good and they stick to the ribs. Wrapped in aluminum foil and twisted at both ends, Wilson’s Hot Tamales have been a Cleveland staple for more than 40 years thanks to Marvin Wilson, the tamale man.
Wilson, his six sons and three daughters have been serving hot tamales all over the area since 1968, when tiny, dapper Marvin quit the pie business he ran at East 124th Street and St. Clair Avenue and opened Wilson’s Hot Tamales at 1179 E. 79th St., a rental location. Wilson’s moved into its own building at 17229 Euclid Ave. in 1992, occupying that until 2008, when it moved to its current location, 15652 Euclid, in East Cleveland. About 500 tamales a day are produced in an old Garland stove at the rear of the store.
“Hot tamale make you jolly,” says Wilson, who retired in 2005 after the death of his wife, Roseanne, a school teacher in East Cleveland. “Need to eat some, won’t be melancholy.” Sporting a wide-brimmed hat, sport coat, contrasting dress pants, tie, white shirt and loafers fit for dancing, Wilson seems slightly touched. He’s sure good at tamale poetry.
“Everything’s beautiful,” he says in a singsong voice. “I go with the flow and celebrate making dough. Tamales are a big deal. When you’re hot, you’re hot. That means a lot.”
His son, Mike, usually speaks for his father, who often repeats himself. Mike, who is 36, has operated the business since he was 18; his younger brothers Jaishawn and Joshua also work there, and sister Markietta does the bookkeeping and accounting. His older brother, Marvin Jr., 41, owns a Wilson’s Hot Tamales in Atlanta. The Wilsons plan to open a takeout branch at 1290 Hayden in East Cleveland next month. That location, which brother Jeremy Wilson will run, will also provide parking for the fleet of seven Wilson’s Hot Tamales trucks that deliver the product. Mike says Wilson’s hot tamales are distributed to four factories in Painesville and all over the rest of Cleveland’s suburbs.
“People get intoxicated and they’ll eat a spicy tamale and it helps,” says Mike. “A lot of people who drink want to eat a tamale.”
While there are competitors, “none of them are Wilson’s,” he adds. “We just go along with the trademark, Wilson’s Hot Tamales, and if it doesn’t say Wilson’s Hot Tamales, it’s not the real thing.”
“Mine’s special because I’m special,” says his dad [pictured left]. “Wilson, the man with the plan, the man to see, just like Muhammad Ali. I’m good at what I do.”
Wilson’s Hot Tamales acquires ingredients from different providers including Dean Supply, U.S. Foodservice and Farm House Foods. A Wilson’s hot tamale is “comprised of select herbs and spices, ground beef, onions, bell peppers, greens and cornmeal,” says Marvin.
While Wilson’s also sells chicken wings, perch, sausage and pop, tamales represent 80 percent of the business.
Also a major presence at the store: Darrell Meggott, a burly security man. The neighborhood is sketchy. The glass door is cracked, some windows busted. “We’re in the inner city projects,” Mike says. “We got a couple of security guards in plain clothes to keep customers coming in.”
Meggott, who says he also provides security for the O’Jays, says “the neighborhood was real nice back in the day. Everything was real nice and smooth; then everybody started losing their houses, their property. A couple of kids about six months ago started smashing windows; everybody lost their jobs, they started hanging.”
