Fresno restaurateur who opened iconic downtown steakhouse in 1969 has died at age 89

There was this thing Richard Stockle loved to say to customers when they complimented the food at his downtown Fresno steakhouse.

“Tell them where you got it,” he would say, an enduring way to ensure that word of mouth.

Another favorite: “If it’s isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”

“And his restaurant was never broken,” says Stockle’s grandson, Ben Stockle, who started working at Richard’s Prime Rib and Seafood as a busboy when he was 17. He now runs the restaurant on Belmont Avenue.

“He pretty much taught me everything he knew,” Ben Stockle says.

“I still do what he did, to this day.”

Richard Stockle died on Saturday at the age of 89. He was suffering from Alzheimer’s and had stepped away from the restaurant in recent years, the family said.

The family announced the passing in a post on Facebook that was quickly filled with condolences and remembrances from patrons and employees.

“I have so many unique and wonderful memories of my time there and, especially, of him. Some of the stories I have from there I still tell to this day, 40 years later.”

Richard’s Prime Rib and Seafood opened its doors at 1609 E. Belmont Ave., just west of Blackstone Avenue, in 1969 and has been run by Stockle’s family in the same spot for all but a brief run in the 2000s.

The place existed as a kind of time capsule; its neon sign an iconic part of the downtown streetscape. It’s is the kind of place where dinners come in three courses, starting with an old-school shrimp cocktail.

“The menu is still the same as it was,” Ben Stockle says.

“The prices have changed considerably.”

And Richard’s retains other old-school charms: the low lit dining room with wood trim and big leather booths; the chatty waitresses and paintings of naked women on the walls.

“It’s like dining in a back issue of Playboy magazine,” according to one review from 1996.

“Just the fact that we are still here, in the same location, after 34 years should speak for itself,” Stockle said in a newspaper interview in 2003. “The life expectancy of an independent restaurant today is maybe five years. We’ve survived because of consistency of food and because of great service. We are the last restaurant in Fresno with no windows. People don’t come here for a view, they come here for good, high-quality food and friendly service.”

Part of that was Stockle himself, who made sure to personally visit each table. He could tell which customers were regulars by whether they came in the front door or the back one nearer to the parking lot.

That’s something people remember and something Ben Stockle continues to this day.

“He was appreciative and humble,” he says.

“If if wasn’t for them, he wouldn’t be there. He was the owner; he wanted to make sure everything was right.”

Stockle is survived by his daughter Debbie Stockle and two sons Jerry Stockel and Richard Stockle, Jr.

Services are pending, but will be announced on the restaurant’s social media, the family says.

This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 12:57 PM.