Almost five years ago, I moved to Charleston from Austin, Texas, a city with food so good that New York City now has Austin-inspired restaurants (according to ny.eater.com). In Austin, there is a plethora of local restaurants that the city’s residents love, to the point that national chains often have a hard time keeping many locations open across the city. When I moved to Charleston, I was worried about leaving all of the incredible food that I loved so dearly behind, but when I got to town, I was surprised to find that there is more than enough variety in the town’s restaurants to keep me satisfied.

In my opinion, not only do the best restaurants, and businesses in general, tend to be smaller, local ones, but those small businesses give the town character and make it unique. Even better, when we spend our money at those businesses, we keep our money in the local community, keep those businesses open and encourage others in the community to open their own businesses. It helps businesses, it helps us and it helps the town.

If you haven’t caught on yet, I’m encouraging everyone reading this to go out and support our community’s local businesses. Like I said before, I’m really impressed at the number of great local places in Charleston, and we should all be doing everything in our power to keep those places open and thriving.

Coming from Texas five years ago, I feared I would have no place to get a good taco when I got to Charleston, but all of my fears were relieved when I discovered Mi Casa Tu Casa (then called Bamca). Seriously—if you haven’t had a taco or burrito or bowl or the queso at Mi Casa Tu Casa, you’re playing yourself. There’s so much great food in Charleston: Thai, Mexican, Chinese (buffet-style and take-out), Italian (thanks to the recently opened Typsy Tomato), sandwiches, burgers, fried chicken (please do yourself a favor and go to Taste if you haven’t, and if you already have, you shouldn’t need me to tell you to go again), classic diner food, and of course, pizza (SO much pizza).

Food may be my personal favorite thing to spend money on, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other local businesses—it’s quite the opposite, really. I personally love music, and buying physical albums both on CD and vinyl, and Positively Fourth Street has been one of my favorite places since I moved to Charleston. I could go on, but unfortunately I don’t have the space to talk about all of the local spots I have come to love and appreciate over the years.

Here’s the bottom line: We should all do our part to support and treasure our local businesses.

Jackson Bayer is a senior creative writing major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or at jcbayer@eiu.edu.