Say goodbye this weekend to a beloved Fresno patio. This Mexican restaurant is moving
This weekend is the last chance to say goodbye to one of the most unique restaurant patios in town.
The original Toledo’s Mexican Restaurant at 7315 N. Blackstone Avenue is moving. Its last day at the current location is Sunday, June 2.
The restaurant said in an emailed statement: “We invite patrons to dine one more time this week and enjoy the patio, albondigas soup, chips and salsa, and of course the famous margaritas before we say goodbye to this iconic spot,”
The restaurant plans to open a new location at the northeast corner of Cedar and Nees avenues, but it won’t have a patio. The owners hope it will open by the end of the year, according to Jesse Toledo, part of the family that owns the restaurants.
The Blackstone Toledo’s has a tiny indoor dining room. But go through a door and there’s a different world behind it.
The patio
The patio is several times the size of its dining room, with booths and tables and a covered roof. Several mature trees grow through the patio’s dining area, some of the tables cut to accommodate their trunks. The patio has a green carpet and a mariachi band makes regular appearances.
When The Bee first reported in December that the restaurant was moving, readers came out in droves on Facebook to mourn the patio.
But the space is a little dated, with some tight spaces, swamp coolers and limited parking. The first of several locations, the restaurant opened in September of 1991.
The restaurant’s owner alluded to the parking situation with a tongue-in-cheek video posted on Facebook.
New restaurant
The new location isn’t right on the corner, but a little north of it, near the Jack in the Box.
It’s about 1,000 feet bigger and will have a bigger kitchen. It will have a full, sit-down bar, something the current one doesn’t have.
It will also expand from three beer taps to 20 and have room for more tequila, Toledo told The Bee last year.
The three other Toledo locations (Fresno Street and Shaw Avenue, and Milburn and Herndon avenues in Fresno and Shaw and Cole avenues in Clovis) will remain open as usual.