The area now occupied by the El Torito Mexican Restaurant was once the site of the Custom House Packing Corporation and Carmel Canning Company. The Carmel cannery was a World War I entry into the sardine industry boom. The Custom House Packing Co. began operation a decade later, just prior to the Wall Street crash of 1929. Although each weathered a difficult start-up, both survived until a seemingly inexhaustible supply of sardines disappeared.