Starbucks looks to build a new Fresno location. What longtime restaurant will it replace?

Starbucks wants to build a new coffee shop in downtown Fresno.

The coffee giant is in the early stages of planning a location on the site of the El Torito Mexican restaurant. Closed since 2018, the beloved restaurant was torn down in March.

The empty land is near on Tulare Street near R Street, between Grocery Outlet and La Quinta Inn.

Fresno-based architecture firm iT Architecture filed an application for a conditional-use permit July 1. It describes a 2,406-square-foot Starbucks with a drive-thru and indoors and outdoor seating.

The permit application is currently under review by the planning director, said Sontaya Rose, the city’s communications director. It would need to be approved by the director, and won’t go before the planning commission unless someone appeals the approval within 15 days.

A move/closure? Or a new coffee shop?

The new Starbucks is still many months away from starting construction and opening. But if all goes as planned, it would be built just three-tenths of a mile away from an existing Starbucks. That one is at U and Divisadero streets, in front of Office Depot.

That location also has a drive-thru.

Starbucks sometimes builds a new location and closes as nearby one. For example, it closed the location in the Tower District’s Olive Avenue and opened a new one with a drive-thru at Clinton and Blackstone avenues.

Starbucks did not respond to a request for comment, but so far it appears there are no plans to close the U Street location, Rose said.

“From what I understand in talking with some people in our planning department, it does sound like this will be a new location — that the Divisadero and U Starbucks would still be operating in that location,” she said.