The Queso Connection

Long before Cool Springs was somewhere I ate queso for a living, it was somewhere I thought sounded extra cool. When I was growing up in North Alabama, I'd tell people at school that my outfit came from CoolSprings Galleria as though I'd just returned from Paris. Years later, after moving back to Nashville in 2017, Garcia's became one of the first Mexican restaurants with Texas flairI found that felt like mine. I love the spicy Chupacabra burrito, and the classic white queso was always part of the equation. Cool Springs eventually became something else, too: the unofficial northern border of my parents' willingness to visit. I used to joke that they simply would not come any farther up the interstate. Funny how geography changes. The place you once bragged about visiting becomes the place you meet your parents for dinner. The highway exit becomes a family joke. A bowl of white queso becomes a trail marker for an entire era. I'm grateful for every time I griped about having to meet my family at Cool Springs bc I'd do just about anything to hug my Mama's neck for her birthday here once again.