SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A popular tamale spot got a five-star review from some stars out of Hollywood.
The Warner Bros. movie crew couldn’t get enough of Yolanda’s Tamales. It's been a Sacramento staple since 1988.
However, Andres Yanez said, that in his 15 years of running the restaurant and food truck, the coolest order he’s ever taken happened this month.
“The one for Leonardo DiCaprio and the cast of the movie that was the coolest one, except for delivering tamales to the state capitol,” said Yanez.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn were filming a Warner Bros. movie in the Sacramento area for almost two weeks. During those two weeks, he fed the crew eight times.
He said someone on the production staff found Yolanda’s on Yelp and called wanting 300 lunches in just three hours.
“I had a knot in my throat, but I just said 'yes,'” said Yanez.
Keep in mind the restaurant only has enough food on hand to serve less than 200 hundred customers each day. Plus, he said the movie crew asked for things not on the menu, like pesto sandwiches and cheesesteaks.
“You cannot pass any opportunity you get right now. You got to take it and run with it,” said Yanez.
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He ran to the store multiple times and called in six extra employees.
“They called and they wanted tamales and then they wanted corn tamales and then potato flautas, chicken fajitas, steak fajitas, veggie fajitas,” said Yanez. “I tried so hard like, we could deliver the food to you guys, I could take my food truck, I could take my trailer, I could get a grill set up, I can do whatever you want on-site on set but unfortunately no.”
Yanez said the production team never said who ate his food, but he hopes DiCaprio and Penn did.
“I really hope he ate the tamales because that’s what we are known for, so I hope he was eating them like, 'Damn, let me get another one,'” said Yanez.
Some of the items that the crew asked for were specialty soups and sandwiches and Yanez said they might start appearing on the menu on Sundays.
“It feels really honoring, honestly. As a small business, it makes us feel good and like we are doing something right,” said Yanez.
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