Founder Sam Toledo, pictured during construction of the original Toledo\u2019s Mexican Restaurant in 1991, helped build a family business that has spanned generations and locations. Toledo was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Best of the Valley Restaurant Awards. Courtesy of Toledo’s<\/p>\n
When Toledo\u2019s Mexican Restaurant opened on Blackstone Avenue in September 1991, Bryan Adams\u2019 \u201c(Everything I Do) I Do It for You\u201d was atop the Billboard Hot 100, California\u2019s minimum wage was $4.25 and a house margarita at Toledo\u2019s cost $3.50.<\/p>\n
Thirty-five years later, the family-owned restaurant brought back $3.50 margaritas as part of its Sept. 4-6 anniversary celebration.<\/p>\n
In 1991, California\u2019s minimum wage and Toledo\u2019s weekday lunch special were both $4.25. Today, the minimum wage is $16.90 and the lunch special is $16.99.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe price of our lunch special has kind of always flowed with minimum wage,\u201d co-owner Carmen Toledo said. \u201cAs the minimum wage goes up \u2014 to keep an eye on your labor and to make sure that your margins are correct \u2014 you have to change the price.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toledo\u2019s was founded by Sam Toledo, who opened his namesake restaurant in Fresno in 1991 after beginning his restaurant career as a teenager. Earlier this year, the Fresno Chapter of the California Restaurant Association presented Toledo with its Lifetime Achievement Award at the Best of the Valley Restaurant Awards.<\/p>\n
Carmen and her brother, Jesse Toledo, are the second generation to run the business.<\/p>\n
Jesse was 11 when Toledo\u2019s opened Sept. 5, 1991. He began bussing tables at the restaurant, later working as a cashier, host, server, bartender, dishwasher and line cook.<\/p>\n
Now a third generation of the Toledo family is working in the company. Carmen\u2019s 21-year-old son is a bartender, while Jesse\u2019s daughter works in the kitchen and with the serving staff.<\/p>\n
Customers have returned across generations, too. Carmen said people who visited as children now bring their own children. Jesse has watched couples who dated at Toledo\u2019s return years later with families.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re one of the strings in their life story,\u201d Jesse said.<\/p>\n
Today, Toledo\u2019s operates three restaurants, at Cedar and Nees avenues and Herndon and Milburn avenues in Fresno and on Shaw Avenue in Clovis.<\/p>\n
The original 4,000-square-foot Blackstone location operated for 28 years before closing in 2019. Its 6,000-square-foot replacement at Cedar and Nees was designed around Toledo\u2019s operations and includes two kitchens, with additional capacity for takeout, catering and large orders.<\/p>\n
The business has also added online ordering, a digital waitlist and a rewards program, while much of the menu remains familiar. Combination plates have been the top seller for 35 years and currently outsell the next-highest-selling item 10 to 1, according to Carmen. Toledo\u2019s albondigas soup also dates to the original restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur menu has not changed that much over 35 years,\u201d Jesse said.<\/p>\n
Toledo\u2019s marked the anniversary with throwback 1990s T-shirts and $3.50 margaritas from Sept. 4-6. Mariachi Tenochtitlan performed during an anniversary celebration at the Cedar and Nees restaurant.<\/p>\n
The company plans to continue celebrating its 35th anniversary throughout the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s to the next 35 years,\u201d Jesse said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Founder Sam Toledo, pictured during construction of the original Toledo\u2019s Mexican Restaurant in 1991, helped build a family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[9376,112,114,113,183005],"class_list":["post-464709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-anniversary","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-toledos-mexican-restaurant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}