Walk to the end of the Village Green shopping center, enter the last shop’s door just past Coco’s, walk up the stairs and turn the corner. Here, you will find the greatest restaurant in Vienna. Hundreds of students walk past it every day, not knowing the fantastic treasure it holds.

Charlie’s Bowl Taqueria originally opened many years ago as a food truck vendor; however, it had not come to my attention until four years ago when it became an established store. After school one day, a friend asked if I wanted to grab some food. He led me to this holy grail that was Charlie’s Bowl. Initially, I was very confused. It didn’t look like a regular restaurant. It was hidden up a poorly lit, skinny stairwell, but as I turned the corner, I was astonished at what I had been missing all along. Spanish music echoed throughout the room and the smell of a thousand spices floated through the air. The room was small, no bigger than a classroom. A sheet partitioned the kitchen from the seating area. A man came from behind the sheet, Charlie himself, and asked us what we wanted. I was so bewildered by what I was seeing that I hadn’t even looked at the menu. Burritos, tacos, nachos, anything you could ask for.

Upon taking the first bite of my food, a chicken burrito, my tastebuds felt an appreciation they had never felt before. I had never tasted so much flavor in a single bite. Had the food not come out piping hot, I would have devoured the entire burrito in less than a minute. Since that moment, I have been hooked. It felt an injustice that this beautiful establishment was not known by the public. I warned everybody I knew of Charlie’s Bowl: friends, parents, teammates, anyone with a pulse. Like Paul Revere warning the colonists that the British were coming, I felt it was my civic duty.

Since then, not much has changed. The food is still sublime. The kitchen is still partitioned off, the tables are the same and the food is just as good as the first time. Although, the stairwell is a bit better lit now.