Memories about growing up in:

Before there was Senor Taco and Taco Bell, there was Taco Tienda before Les opened his LesterBurger across the street on Blackstone at the corner of Blackstone and Clinton. I remember being carted there by my mother and sitting in the car while she went inside similar to the original customer walk-up at the original McDonald's up the street at Shields. Taco Tienda had large glass windows around the front half of the building, and I can remember some signage inside the windows with several inches of dead flies between the signs and windows. It was a drive up as opposed to a drive-in. It was hard for me as a kid to think that anything good would come out of there, but it was Fresno in the summer, and it was some of the best fast food Mexican in Fresno at the time. Later, the building would go away, and the steakhouse chain of Topper's would take its place. The Topper's chain died in the '70's with most locations becoming Happy Steak locations. I believe that there are only a couple of those original Topper's buildings still standing..... DiCicco's @ Clinton and Weber and one on Shaw in Clovis. Now, as a sign of the times, the Taco Tienda site is a Starbuck's with a long line in the drive thru.