I feel like no small town is complete without a Mexican restaurant. My hometown had two and where I live now has one. There's essentially staple pieces to the town.

In my hometown, these restaurants are the go-to places for dinner whether its a family outing or date night. On friday nights after football games, they stayed open past close because all the high school kids went there just after the game ended.

In Montevallo, the Mexican restaurant is where you run into basically anyone and everyone on any given night. There's no way you can go and not see someone you know. Its where I've found myself after many campus events and it’s one of the only places in town I'm willing to wait for a table at.

So thank you to the small town Mexican restaurants. Thank you to the exceptionally nice wait staff and the cheese dip that never disappoints. Thank you for the endless chips and salsa I could make myself sick off of. Thank you for not judging us when we come in after a bad day. Thank you for not showing it if our loud laughter is obnoxious. Thank you, specifically, to the staff at one of the ones in my hometown for not staring at me when I cried in a booth because my boyfriend at the time was going back to North Carolina.

I'm sorry to all of you for when my friends and I come in right before close or when we make a mess of the salsa. I hope you dont mind when we get a little loud or when we are a little difficult to serve because we appreciate you, oh. so much. You never show it if we agitate you and I don't mind that sometimes we eat there twice in one day.

Thank you to all the small town restaurants, not just the ones with bottomless chips and salsa.