SAN ANTONIO – You've heard the saying: The early bird gets the worm.
Well, at this time of the year in San Antonio, the early bird gets the tamale.
Just ask the folks who lined up before the crack of dawn at Tellez Tamales & Barbacoa in the 1700 block of South General McMullen Drive.
Tony and Cynthia Medinas arrived at 1:30 a.m. and were second in line to buy 20 dozen of the delicious holiday favorite.
"I took orders -- my aunt, my sister-in-law," Cynthia Medinas said. "It's our culture. It's family tradition, (to) be out there. Every year, we do this. It's fun. You get to meet new people, people from out of town. It's fun."
From Thursday night through early morning Friday, workers prepared 24,000 tamales to feed the waiting hungry masses.
The Tellez family has four decades of experience behind their craft.
From Thanksgiving to Christmas, the restaurant expects to sell 100,000 dozen tamales, or 1.2 million of the handmade cornhusk-wrapped delights.
"We work very hard to get this line," said Luis Tellez, a co-owner of the business.
At the General McMullen Drive location, the doors opened at 4:30 a.m. and the restaurant ran out of the holiday classic about two hours later.
But, there's another chance to get in on the food fun this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, the General McMullen Drive location will open at 3 a.m., said John Gabrial Tellez, who helps manage the family business.
"The reason they are doing that is to try and curb the line a little bit, because there's just such a huge line at McMullen (Drive)," he said. "So, if they need tamales from over there, they got to get there real early."
The Bandera Road location should open at 6 a.m., but it will open earlier if it's raining.