Love of sign leads to El Toro success story
The El Toro sign became a familiar sight in Baytown’s restaurant scene.
“I graduated from high school in Pasadena in 1953 and moved a few years later to La Porte. I got married and saw the possibility of raising a family, so I knew I had to do something.”
That “something” turned out to be running a Mexican food restaurant. He joined one of his uncles in 1960 to operate La Siesta in La Porte. Soon after Hurricane Carla hit the Gulf Coast the following year, he purchased a restaurant in Clute called El Toro.
Eugene Ybarra died at age 81.
“The only reason I bought it was because I liked the sign. I really wanted that sign.”
He liked the lettering and image of a bull so much that he renamed the La Porte restaurant El Toro.
The El Toro sign and food are well known in Baytown, where there are three locations. It’s one of our favorites. If we don’t eat there once a week, it’s probably because of an illness or a hurricane.
So I was sad to learn this week that Eugene Ybarra, the man behind El Toro, had passed away at age 81. I recalled interviewing him in 2013 for an article I was writing about the family business.
Even as his children run the day-to-day operations, which include several other restaurant chains in the greater Houston area and El Matador Foods in Baytown, Eugene continued to show up at the office on Bayway Drive every morning. The siblings valued their father’s business sense.
One of his sons told me at the time, “My father will never retire, and we can’t blame him. We really enjoy having him here with us. But we know that seat he sits in will be empty one day. That will be a sad day.”
