# 'Berto's Taco Shops are the Best

Here in San Diego, taco shops ending in -berto are
everywhere, and they're awesome.

## A brief history

The first was Roberto's taco shop, which was opened by
Roberto and Dolores Robledo in the 1960s. Soon they had a
little chain of popular restaurants and Roberto's cousins
started managing one of them.

There was some disagreement about how to run the business,
and the cousins ended up splitting from Roberto and renaming
their restaurant Alberto's. That was the start of a large
number of spin-offs and copy-cats.

gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Roberto's Taco Shop

## A San Diego Standard

The Berto's taco shops set the standard for what fast
Mexican food is in San Diego. In particular, they've defined
the San Diego style of burrito, which is what's sometimes
called at 'meat burrito' outside of San Diego. It's a
burrito filled with meat, cheese, guacamole, and pico de
gallo. There are no beans or rice in a proper carne asada
burrito.

When I lived in LA County, I really missed the San Diego
style burrito. I lived in Pico Rivera, which is about 98%
Hispanic and there was some great food there, but the
burritos were all diluted by rice and beans.

## Carne Asada

Another innovation that came (probably) out of Roberto's
Taco shop is the California Burrito. It's a carne asada
burrito with chese, guacamole, pico de gallo, and french
fries.

And how could I not mention carne asada fries? Take a plate
of french fries and add carne asada, cheese, guacamole, pico
de gallo, and sour cream, and you have a great meal.

I love Roberto's, but for a carne asado burrito, my favorite
place is El Indio just south of Old Town. Both Robert,'s and
El Indio started as tortilla factories. Apparently, back in
the 50s, there weren't a lot of tortilla suppliers north of
the border.