When Toledo’s Mexican Restaurant opened on Blackstone Avenue in September 1991, Bryan Adams’ “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” was atop the Billboard Hot 100, California’s minimum wage was $4.25 and a house margarita at Toledo’s cost $3.50.
Thirty-five years later, the family-owned restaurant brought back $3.50 margaritas as part of its Sept. 4-6 anniversary celebration.
In 1991, California’s minimum wage and Toledo’s weekday lunch special were both $4.25. Today, the minimum wage is $16.90 and the lunch special is $16.99.
“The price of our lunch special has kind of always flowed with minimum wage,” co-owner Carmen Toledo said. “As the minimum wage goes up — to keep an eye on your labor and to make sure that your margins are correct — you have to change the price.”
Toledo’s 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.
Carmen and her brother, Jesse Toledo, are the second generation to run the business.
Jesse was 11 when Toledo’s opened Sept. 5, 1991. He began bussing tables at the restaurant, later working as a cashier, host, server, bartender, dishwasher and line cook.
Now a third generation of the Toledo family is working in the company. Carmen’s 21-year-old son is a bartender, while Jesse’s daughter works in the kitchen and with the serving staff.
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’s return years later with families.
“We’re one of the strings in their life story,” Jesse said.
Today, Toledo’s operates three restaurants, at Cedar and Nees avenues and Herndon and Milburn avenues in Fresno and on Shaw Avenue in Clovis.
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’s operations and includes two kitchens, with additional capacity for takeout, catering and large orders.
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’s albondigas soup also dates to the original restaurant.
“Our menu has not changed that much over 35 years,” Jesse said.
Toledo’s 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.
The company plans to continue celebrating its 35th anniversary throughout the year.
“Here’s to the next 35 years,” Jesse said.
