MAPLESVILLE
The staff of Valle Grande Mexican Grill are like family.
A TASTE OF MEXICO Valle Grande is a popular spot in Maplesville
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STORY AND PHOTOS BY JOYANNA LOVE
he scents of onion, tortillas and flavorful meat greet customers as they wait outside on a busy Friday night. Valle Grande Mexican Grill has become a destination restaurant in the town of Maplesville, popular with residents of not only the town but Chilton County and beyond. Sergio and Monica Sanchez opened the restaurant in 2017. 28
FACES AND PLACES 2021
While it shares a name with their original restaurant in Valle Grande, the goal from the start with the Maplesville restaurant was to be able to do things their own way, uniquely Sanchez and authentically Mexican. The couple had purchased the building in 2016 and spent about a year getting it ready. “The first restaurant we opened just to have something extra … I was the director of the
cable company in Montgomery, and she was helping us with the office, and we just opened the restaurant (in Valle Grande) to have something to fall on in, something in case the cable company didn’t work,” Sergio said. “The cable company sold out, and I decided not to go to work for the new company and that is when we made the decision to open a location where we could start our own.” At the location in Valle Grande, the couple was limited
in some of the things they could do because they were renting the building. “We weren’t really able to say that we had worked on it with our ideas, our vision,” Monica said. They wanted to have a restaurant that really reflected who they were and their Mexican heritage. “We focus a lot on how we grew up,” Monica said. Both are from small communities and lived close to family members. The Maplesville location uses
