This downtown Fresno Mexican restaurant, popular for decades, has been torn down
Fresno’s El Torito Mexican restaurant is officially a memory.
The downtown Fresno restaurant that was the site of business meetings and late-night margaritas was torn down Friday.
The Tulare Street restaurant closed abruptly in October 2018.
The company did not say why it closed the restaurant. But at the time, the restaurant’s troubled owner was closing locations around the country following two bankruptcies in six years.
El Torito, Chevys Fresh Mex, and Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina were all owned by Cypress, California-based Real Mex Restaurants. All three once had locations in Fresno, but all have closed. (The Chevys in River Park is now Texas de Brazil Churrascaria Steakhouse.)
Friday, El Torito had been reduced to a pile of rubble. Twisted metal kitchen equipment and fans were piled high in one corner. Pieces of a tree were mixed into the debris.
The restaurant’s brightly colored walls and murals, including one that said “Tijuana Taxi,” were exposed to the sun Friday as the building was half torn down. Its green door lay on its side atop the debris.
It’s not clear yet what – if anything – is planned for the property.
Across social media Friday, fans of El Torito were mourning the destruction of the building and sharing memories of time spent there.
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 2:27 PM.
