Joshua Carney / Craig Press
If it weren’t for a bunch of Craig hunters passing through Montrose who made it a point to stop at Vallarta’s, the huge family running it might still be there.
But the hunters were persistent. There are no Mexican restaurants in Craig, they said, and so Cassandra and her husband, Pepe Nunez, went to check it out. The mall manager showed them their first location, and they practically leased it on the spot.
Those hunters were right. The place took off “like crazy,” Cassandra said. They closed their other two restaurants, including the one in Montrose, and decided to plant their roots in Craig with their mother and Pepe’s nine siblings. This was back in 2007, but the Nunez family including most of the siblings have stuck around. The restaurant made even more of a commitment back in 2018 by moving into the old Signal Hill building.