Before us — the first orange tree.
Julius Orton plants the first orange tree in the Lindsay district on his homestead. It earns the area its motto: "Central California's Citrus Center." By 1905, 700 acres of orange groves cover the foothills. By the 1930s, Lindsay is a citrus boom town with packing houses running 24 hours a day during harvest season.
Mexican families arrived to work those groves. In 1939, Dorothea Lange came to Lindsay to photograph their houses for the Library of Congress. The Mexican-American community here is as old as the citrus industry itself.
A doctor named the restaurant.
World War II was still being fought. Roosevelt was president. And in a small Tulare County town called Lindsay, a Mexican grandmother named Nofie Garcia wanted to open a restaurant.
Her doctor — Dr. Bowen — owned a building. He told her she could have it. "Pay me back when you can," he said. He named the place after the alley behind it. That was the deal. That was 1943.
The orange groves were in full production. The Mexican citrus workers had been part of Lindsay since the 1930s — Dorothea Lange came here to photograph their houses for the Library of Congress in 1939. We opened to feed them. Eighty-two years later, we're still here.
Bell Johnson's fried chicken.
In the 1940s, an African-American cook named Bell Johnson worked at China's Alley. He developed our fried chicken recipe — slow-cooked, hand-breaded, the way it's still done today. We never changed it. Locals know to call it in 45 minutes before they arrive.
Grandma's secret for the taco meat came from making the food go further. "She'd put potato into the hamburger meat," Ruben says. That depression-era trick became why every Valley family says our taco meat tastes like home.
Second generation takes over.
Grandma's children took the restaurant in 1970 and ran it for twenty years. The full bar opened in this era. Word traveled — slowly at first, then all at once. Visalia regulars started making the drive on Friday nights. "The owner makes a mean margarita" became a phrase repeated by reviewers for the next sixty years.
Porterville opens. Grandma passes.
The Henderson Avenue location in Porterville opens its doors. Same family. Same recipes. Same red sauce, hauled over from the Lindsay kitchen so the consistency wouldn't drift.
Grandma China passed in 2001. She'd been in the kitchen for fifty-eight years. Her recipes are everywhere — every plate that goes out is hers, in some form. Even the menu items added later were built on her foundation.
Ruben runs the kitchens.
Ruben Gonzales, Grandma's grandson, runs both locations now. He's the third generation. He's added exactly one dish to the menu in his time: "The Ruben Special" — tri-tip, beans and lettuce, served in a sea-shell-shaped fried tortilla. The only "new" item that earned its place.
We've watched first dates turn into wedding parties. Quinceañeras. Friday nights after football. The regulars who order before they sit down. We're not chasing the next trend. We're keeping a Lindsay tradition alive — the way Grandma built it.
"We've got all this great food to offer everybody in the Valley. Wherever you're from, come and check us out."
— Ruben Gonzales · ABC30 Dine & Dish