TRUCKEE, Calif. — For nearly four decades, El Toro Bravo has been more than a restaurant in Truckee. It’s been a neighborhood institution, a second home and, for many, a living scrapbook of life’s most meaningful moments. But now, the restaurant that has stood the test of time is facing its most uncertain chapter.

“I’ve been serving a lot of the same people for 38 years,” said Trinidad Rey, El Toro Bravo’s current owner. “I know their names, their parents’ names, their grandparents’ names.”

Since opening in 1988, the restaurant has welcomed generations through its doors. Babies once carried in strollers now return with children of their own, settling into the same booths, ordering the same dishes and being greeted by the same familiar faces.

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The walls of El Toro Bravo tell the story, too. Dozens of framed photos stretch across the space — smiling customers, kitchen crews, family gatherings.

Rey paused at one picture: his grandmother, standing proudly with roses in her hair.

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Since she opened the restaurant, four generations of the Rey family have worked behind the line, washed dishes, poured drinks and welcomed guests like family.

For the people who’ve spent their lives within the restaurant, El Toro Bravo does feel like family.

Martina Lopez started working at El Toro Bravo in the early 2000s, bussing tables and learning the ropes. Eduardo Ortiz was a cook — steady, kind, focused — and before long, they fell in love between the clatter of plates and the rhythm of the kitchen.

Their relationship wasn’t built on flowers and dates, but on shared shifts, end-of-day laughter and quiet Sunday walks in town. They got married on one of their rare days off, without a honeymoon, and built their life within the walls of the restaurant.

For 16 years, they worked side by side — through late nights, snowstorms and holidays — until 2019, when Ortiz died following a sudden illness.

“I couldn’t leave,” Lopez said. “El Toro Bravo holds every memory of him.”

On April 25, 1988 — a Wednesday, as he recalls — Martin Huerta stepped into El Toro Bravo for the first time. A foot of snow blanketed the ground.

Originally from Mexico, he had never seen anything like it. But inside, the warmth was immediate.

He joined the kitchen team and never looked back. For more than two decades, he worked alongside his brother, Rafael Huerta.

Eleven years ago, his brother died. In the difficult times that followed, the restaurant, the staff and the customers surrounded him like family.

“I’m not going to leave until they tell me to go,” Huerta said.

A fight for the future

Most of the staff at El Toro Bravo have been there for more than 15 years. They’ve celebrated weddings, mourned losses, watched families grow up and served holiday meals for customers who have long since become friends.

“Everyone here has a story,” Lopez said.

But now, the place that has given so many a sense of belonging is at risk.

About a year ago, the building’s owners decided to sell the property. The price: just over $1 million.

Rey was left with a choice — buy the property and save El Toro Bravo, or face the unimaginable: closing its doors for good.

A GoFundMe campaign has raised $25,000, but Rey has only a month and a half left to secure the remaining $275,000 needed for the down payment.

“It’s like trying to make money from thin air,” he said.

Still, Rey is doing everything he can to raise the funds — not just for himself, but for his family’s legacy, his staff’s livelihoods and for the community that has built El Toro Bravo.

“I just want to keep this restaurant going,” Rey said.