The spread of Roberto's Taco Shop restaurants and its many “Berto’s” variations across the Southwest and abroad started with one Mexican immigrant family's unique business model.

The concept originates from Roberto's Taco Shop, a family-owned fast-food restaurant that initially opened its doors to San Diego in the late 1960s. The founders were Roberto, the shop's namesake, and Dolores Robledo, who immigrated from the small town of San Juan del Salado in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

“One of the nation’s first Mexican fast-food chains, the family-run Roberto’s Taco Shop introduced an innovative blueprint that would spur copycats and imitators in the Southwest and even abroad. More than 70 variations have been reported across the Southwest states and the majority are owned by people who originate from the same region in Mexico that the Robledos are from. Roberto would encourage family members to work with him and eventually advocated for them to open their own shops once they got familiarized with the system he helped establish”, according to NBC News.

Roberto first came to the United States in the mid-1940s under the Bracero program, which allowed millions of Mexican men to legally work in the country through short-term labor contracts. He would later hold multiple jobs, including being a waiter, working in construction and washing cars on the weekends. When he brought his wife and their children over, Dolores would pack sardines at a cannery and wash hotel industry towels for a linen company.

“In 1964, the family purchased two adjacent homes in San Ysidro, near the U.S.-Mexico border. One home was where they lived, the other was converted into a tortilla factory to make corn and flour tortillas to deliver to other restaurants. They also sold bean and cheese burritos, chile verde (green chile) burritos and chile colorado burritos at that time”, according to NBC.

Only in the fifth store they bought, a snack bar, they renamed it “Roberto's #5” with the name of Roberto.

“It was the first Roberto’s, from there forward all the restaurants we opened were Roberto's Taco Shop”, said Reynaldo, who grew up working in the family business as a cook.

“The business became a rite of passage for Reynaldo and his siblings; at the same time, his father encouraged workers from his ranch to open their own shops. Reynaldo has franchised Roberto’s Taco Shop in Nevada and says there are 60 stores in the region. Additionally, there are also 20 shops in California and one in Texas, all owned by the original family”.

Roberto's Taco Shop has also been recognized for introducing the California burrito, an item that includes French fries, carne asada, guacamole, pico de gallo and cheese. The coveted item has widely become a menu staple in Mexican restaurants in the region. But mystery still remains as to who introduced the item.

“Celebrity restaurateur, author and award-winning host Guy Fieri featured a Las Vegas Roberto's Taco Shop and deemed the carne asada burrito ‘the real deal’ on the Food Network show ‘All-Star Best Thing I Ever Ate’. While Fieri has had many carne asada burritos in his lifetime, something was different about Roberto's as ‘it's simple, straight to the point’, he said in the episode that aired”, according to NBC.

For Reynaldo, having the shop featured on TV shows and in the news is a big accomplishment. But it’s a reminder that “you can still come from Mexico and do something for yourself. My dad always said, ‘all it is, is hard work”.

“The senior Robledo died in 1999 and Dolores died in 2020. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that although the couple separated, they remained friends and consulted with each other about the shops. They would set up a trust for their restaurant business and pass it along to their surviving children”.