Monday, Oct. 4, is National Taco Day here in the U.S. and several local restaurants and students are celebrating.
National Taco Day is a nationwide event where restaurants and bars offer huge deals on tacos and other Mexican foods. It occurs every year on Oct. 4 and has become a small tradition for taco lovers.
If you’re looking to try a few local restaurants this Monday, places like Casa Nueva, 6 W. Court St., are offering sustainable and home-grown ingredients with their menu. Aside from that, they also offer vegetarian and vegan-friendly options for customers.
Grace Corbin, marketing coordinator for Casa Nueva, said Casa Nueva is excited to contribute to National Taco Day.
“Well, we serve tacos every day. So, as far as doing things, we're serving tacos,” Corbin said. “We will probably do some social media posts (that are) taco-related on Instagram and Facebook.”
Corbin also said 100% of Casa Nueva’s meat is local within a 30-mile radius.
“It's very high quality and super humanely raised. We also use cheese that's made in Ohio,” Corbin said. “So, the difference between fast food tacos... is that ours are quite frankly a little bit bigger and have a much better quality. We sauté our meat in our ranchera salsa, so it's got a little flavor and then of course we also do tofu tacos, as we have a peanut soy marinade for tofu.’’
Considering the abundance of local Mexican restaurants and fast-food chains like Taco Bell, 978 E. State St., Taco Johns, 392 Richland Ave., and Chipotle, 41 S. Court St., Athens has quite the love for Mexican food. A few local students at OU had thoughts to share about National Taco Day and their love of Mexican cuisine.
Autumn Zak, a junior studying psychology, gave her perspective on the national day because it was something she had never heard of.
“I love the idea,” Zak said. “I honestly didn't know that was a thing, like everything has a national date but I didn't...know the date. But I love that there's another excuse to eat tacos.”
Another student, Julie Brown, a freshman studying social work, has a fondness for Mexican cuisine and enjoys the various options for Mexican food on campus.
“I'd say Mexican food is probably my favorite,” Brown said. “When my parents came to town, we went to Sol (700 E. State St.) and that has a lot of Mexican food, and I really liked it there. Then, I got Big Mamma's (10 S. Court St.) one day (and) that was really good.”
People can check out local taco sales and indulge in the festivities of the day.
