Tamale Factory & Tequila Bar

Modern Mexican Restaurant in Durham, NC

The Tamale Factory's mission is to offer you a  creative and adventurous dining experience. We offer Modern Mexican food with a full service bar featuring seasonal craft cocktails and beers.  We serve it all up in a restoring, energized atmosphere filled with great music and fun people. You’ll feel like you’re in a friend’s home as our passionate and charismatic team members work hard to make every tamale, taco and fresh-squeezed margarita memorable.

Originally from North Carolina, Chef-Owner Margaritte Malfy moved to New York City to attend college, financing it along the way by working in a handful of well known restaurants. Many of the people she met mostly behind the scene were from Mexico — mostly from Puebla. Margaritte soon developed a passion not only for Mexico, but for the people, the cuisine and the tequila! She has since traveled extensively throughout Mexico collecting recipes, ideas and inspiration on each trip. She opened up her first Mexican restaurant in 2000 in NYC. Her East Village Taqueria had tremendous critical success. It was favorably reviewed by The New York Times and named one of the top 100 restaurants in Manhattan by Time Out Magazine and New York Magazine.

Now back in NC, Margaritte, along with Marcelo Ocampo and Susan Thomas opened Tamale Factory & Tequila Bar in Durham, NC to feature Classic Mexican cuisine. Margaritas and craft cocktails. Inspired by Mexico's Yucatan Region, she blends the rich flavors, textures and traditions from ancient Aztec and Mayan foods like corn and chiles.

The Tamale Factory logo embodies the “corn goddess” Centeotl [ sen-tee-oh-tee ]. She is the Aztec goddess of sustenance and corn (maize). She is among the most important goddesses in the Valley of Mexico. Considered one of the most prominent deities of the Aztec era, her name is associated with luck and generative power. Her image inspires us all!

Buena Bebidas ~ Buena Comida ~ Muy Buena Gente  

Good Drinks ~ Good Food ~ Very Good People