El Indio

Family owned and operated since the first day of business in 1940, El Indio offers traditional Mexican dishes in the midst of San Diego's Little Italy. Originally, founder Ralph Pesqueira Sr. opened El Indio as a home-made tortilla factory, and during World War II, evolved by popular demand to provide ready to eat lunches for neighboring factories in the area, creating the very first "taquitos" in San Diego. Since then, the location has changed and a full menu of Sonora-style Mexican dishes has been put in place featuring recipes that have been passed down and perfected for more than three generations. El Indio is known around the world for providing care packages to troops in Vietnam and Desert Storm, local politicians in Congress, and even a couple of U.S. presidents. Needless to say, family traditions, hard work, and delicious food have placed El Indio on a pedestal of casual excellence and the successful business shows no signs of stopping its rise.