SHEFFIELD — The genesis of Robbie Robles’ deep love of food can be traced back to his California childhood, his Amá [grandmother], and eggs. Growing up in a large family — his mother had six sisters and one brother — food and family went hand in hand. “My Amá was always cooking with all of us. I started at a young age, and I was into it,” said the first-generation Mexican-American of his unconventional training.
Being tasked with making family breakfast meant learning to master eggs, “one of the hardest things to do well,” Robles said of the timing, technique, and temperature required to prepare them well. This hands-on experience has Robles, whose family moved to Sheffield for the second half of his childhood, poised to launch Roberto’s Pizza — a new brick oven pizza restaurant — this May.
“Who doesn’t love pizza?” is the single rhetorical question that set this proverbial ball of dough in motion — one spurred by the pandemic and fueled by Robles’ creativity. It led him to the heart of Staten Island, where he met up with Andrew Scudera and Scot Cosentino.
“It was like a movie,” recalled Robles of his stint in the once-bustling borough, now void of diners and virtually deserted due to the pandemic, where he was seen as “someone showing up with a vision.” Robles ran with this. “I knew I was going to do pizza, and I wanted to learn that style,” he said, all of which has landed him just a stone’s throw from where he grew up on Miller Avenue in Sheffield.
As to his approach? “Heat is an ingredient … I’m cooking at 700+ degrees,” Robles explained of the gleaming 5,000-pound brick oven at center stage in the Roberto’s kitchen. It’s the very tool that will deliver “a real crust … with high heat,” which is the only way Robles really enjoys pizza, a meal he saw rise to the top of the food pyramid during the past 13 months.
In the Berkshires, the pizza is “very specific, Greek or sourdough,” which is why Robles is embarking on another category. He makes his own dough, stretches it by hand, and tops it with a simple homemade sauce with sweet, California tomatoes front and center. “It doesn’t really need much; I want the tomato to do the talking,” he explained while making me a quick pie in the rotating oven still being calibrated for optimal results.
“Food is just, honestly, a part of my culture,” Robles said. He calls his first time visiting Mexico as an adult, to see family in Guadalajara, “a life-changing experience.” It was during this trip that Robles first visited Pujol — Chef Enrique Olvera’s award-winning restaurant in Mexico City, ranked 12th among the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2019 — and Mexico won the Culinary World Cup for the first time. “In the [Mexican] culture, there is so much talent,” Robles said of the marriage between “all the beautiful family recipes that get handed down and the new generation who understands culinary [and] elevates it.” For this reason alone, Robles points to Mexican-Americans and other Latinos working in Italian kitchens as “a match made in heaven,” for the two cultures’ shared love of sauces and “all that good stuff” that comes from deep knowledge and experience.
During our interview, Robles wore a hat emblazoned with “01257,” in a nod to Sheffield and the potential he has always felt here in the Berkshires. “I’ve always called [the Berkshires] the launching pad, where you incubate your ideas and figure it out,” he said. He himself has worn many hats in the area, most notably as general manager of The Marketplace Cafe, proving instrumental to the opening of the Great Barrington location almost four years ago. The Marketplace never shut its doors during the pandemic. “What put them in the lead was online ordering, saving credit card details, and contactless pickup,” all of which allowed customers to avoid the time-consuming spiel of online ordering.
“’Sustainability’ is the key word in the Berkshires,” said Robles of his decision to bring authentic high-heat, brick oven pizza to the 413. This, coupled with what he calls “the frictionless era in business” is what he will deliver to customers at Roberto’s (a moniker that came from the nickname his mom and friends gave him when he was younger).
When it comes to labels, Robles prefers restaurateur over chef — “it’s all about understanding the operating system, the ins and outs of owning a restaurant, that’s the magic,” he said. Echoes of Robles’ stints as an actor and artist permeate the space. “This whole place is my art, my creation, it translates from the food to the décor — it’s an experience,” he said, pointing to the Puerto Rico-inspired plaster walls by local artist Isha Nelson and custom tiled floors and walls. “I want to teach people,” he said of creating a healthy culture based on young professionalism.
And then there’s the pizza: “You’ve got to do it with your knuckles.” He tossed the dusty disc above his head before patching any holes with his thumb and forefinger and employing an old-world saucing technique that “pops in your mouth, the way it’s laid on there.” There is no rolling pin in sight. After a quick spin in the oven (three minutes, if I had to venture a guess), Robles reached for a stainless sword and sliced the pie into quarters.
Robles believes in the Berkshires — his own backyard — and always has. Until his doors are flung open for business (possibly as soon as May 1), he is hard at work on some finishing touches, including a Bravo dipping sauce that “for pizza, for crust, is just really good.” (“Bravo” is mother’s birth name and a word that’s repeated in the tattoo snaking up his left forearm.) Amá is undoubtedly proud, and Sheffield residents’ culinary wanderlust will soon be satiated with a slice of Staten Island on Route 7 South. Bravo, Robbie. Bravo.
