We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Robert Delgado a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Robert, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

It was always a dream of mine to get a food truck. Back then, there weren’t too many food trucks around and my dream was still just a dream.

But one day in 2017 I woke up and said, ‘I’m going to do it.’ I went to the health department, got all the papers, and asked, ‘What do I need to sell food in a food truck?’ Aside from the temporary license, they gave me a list of things that I needed to get. I went little by little and bought everything.

I bought the tent, and I knew I wanted a nice homemade grill, the barrel kind, to cook with and had one custom made. But the health department called me before our inspection, told them about the grill, and they said, ‘Well, you can’t have a homemade grill.’

I just spent all this money to get this grill welded and I can’t use it! Now what do I do? I was already low on cash because I spent money trying to get everything I needed, plus money for the food. But they told me I could use a regular grill. So, I asked my dad, ‘Hey, Dad, can I borrow your barbecue grill?’ I think at the time he only had two grates, but I didn’t care, I needed something so I could open the food truck.

So I had a little, one-burner grill for Philly cheese steaks and that’s how I started out. I just kept progressing since then. I went from cooking under a 10 by 10 canopy tent to buying a food truck from a guy here in Saginaw named Toyo who owns a food truck and restaurant. That was my first one.

But I still had to cook outside, because the only thing we could do in my new truck was prepare everything. I had the crock pots in there but I still had to cook outside, because there’s no hood system in there. I had my grills on and the wind was blowing out my flames out and everything, so it was time to upgrade again.

I looked up trailers, and I bought my trailer last year. It was a new snowmobile trailer we converted into a new food truck. My dad and a couple of other friends helped me. I’m not really a handyman, so I just kind of told everybody what had to be where and they did a lot of the work. I had an electrician who is one of my dad’s good friends. I have another friend who installs equipment and I took it down to Detroit and he did some work on it. So, I did a lot of work to get it customized.

I love my new food truck, but one of my other dreams was that I always wanted a restaurant. One day I woke up and I saw that a restaurant here was closing. A news article had just posted the story a few minutes before, so I hurried up and got down there and talked to the owners of it to get some information and then that’s when I contacted the owner of the building.

The owner of the building called me and we talked and everything, but I thought that somebody else was going to get it, because he said a lot of other people wanted to see it because it’s a good spot.

So I’m thinking that I’m not going to get it, but then he called me one day and said, ‘I just want to say that the city needs what you have to offer. We need what Robbie D’s has. I looked at your Facebook page and I see you’ve got a family and I just want to tell you it’s going to be yours. If you don’t want it, let me know. But it’s yours if you want it.’

Then I had to go through a loan process to get a business loan and that was tough. I went through Huntington Bank but I had somebody from SBDC (Small Business Development Center) help me. His name was Chris Curtis and he helped me get all my finances in order. The branch manager at Huntington, Larry Henderson, Jr. helped walk me through the process and now we’re here. So, God is good. I think what got me most excited about this idea was I was accomplishing my dream of owning a restaurant

Before I even got approved for the building and everything, I prayed on it. I was like, ‘God, if this is your plan for me, if this is your will for me to get a building, then let it happen. If not, then block it from happening and don’t let it happen.’

It happened, so this is God’s plan for me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I went to the Saginaw Career Complex for my 11th and 12th grade year, but I didn’t start off in cooking. I started off with media broadcasting and I was there for a couple of days, but I was dozing off in class. I always said I wanted to be an anchor on ESPN and what we were doing in class wasn’t that, so I’m like, I have to get out of here.

So, I went to my counselor at SCC, and she’s still there, Miss Votruba, and I was like, ‘Hey, is there any other classes I can get into?’ She looked at a bunch and they weren’t open, but then she said that Food and Hospitality was. I’m like, ‘Food, what’s that? Like cooking? I don’t know how to cook, but I like to eat!’ So, I switched classes and that’s how I learned how to cook.

I started learning how to cook and use different recipes and I started liking it, so shout out to Miss Ivan and Miss B at SCC. But while I liked to cook, I didn’t want to grow up and become a chef because I wanted to play baseball or do something else.

Because of that I didn’t pass my ServSafe test to get ServSafe certified, which you need all that stuff to own a food truck and a restaurant. But at the time I was like, I don’t care. I’m not going to do any of that. When I got done, I was looking for a job and out of nowhere Cracker Barrel called me. It’s crazy because me and my dad were on our way from Birch Run and we were talking and I was like, ‘I need a job.’ He told me to pray about it and God will bring what you need. God will open the door for you to get a job. Then out of nowhere Cracker Barrel called me. I’m like, ‘Hey, how did you get my number? I never filled out an application for a cook.’ He said SCC gave them a list of people.

I’m like, ‘Okay, I need a job.’ So, I started cooking at Cracker Barrel. Then my next job was at at a plant called Hemlock Semiconductor.

I’m there and not even thinking about being a cook. Sure, I always said I want to do a food truck but now I’m making good money here. After that I bounced around to a couple of different jobs and then I got a job at the post office and worked third shift in the plant. I was at the post office for about nine and a half years and during that time is when I started Robbie D’s.

So from 2018 all the way until I resigned in 2021, I was doing Robbie D’s, while working full time. Then I said, ‘Man, this is a lot of work. I have a son and I need to spend time with him. He’s in school, so I have to help him with his homework and stuff. I can’t do this my whole life, something’s has to give.

I always said I was going to retire from the post office, but if it were my job or Robbie D’s, which one am I going to pick? This is going to be tough, so I just prayed on it. Eventually, I woke up one day and I’m like, ‘Today’s my last day at the Post Office.

I think what sets me apart from others is just my passion for cooking and my different recipes like my Philly cheesesteak for example mainly in Philadelphia and other places people put cheez wiz on their cheesesteaks but me? I put nacho cheese on mine it’s just different and it tastes great!! My wings are all fresh wings and I made up my own special wing seasoning to put on them they taste great too! I just try to be different in everything I do because I feel like when your different that’s what separates you from others because you’ll stand out and that’s when people will start to notice you.

I just want everyone to know that when you come to my restaurant everything is seasoned with love!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I feel like making good food consistently and having good customer service helped build my reputation as a food truck owner which continued while owing a restaurant. Also Social Media and word of mouth helped me build my reputation too by people sharing my posts and making status’s about how they enjoyed the food at my food truck.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I worked at the United States Postal Service when I started my business and working there along with doing pop ups at my food truck helped me find my business. When I got my restaurant I got a business loan from Huntington Bank that helped me get everything I needed to open my restaurant..

Contact Info:

• Website: www.robbieds.com
• Instagram: robbiedsfoodtruck
• Facebook: Robbie D’s
• Twitter: Robbieds_
• Other: TikTok- robbieds90

Image Credits
The first image I submitted of me with the shades on was taken by Phil Eich of Riverfront Saginaw.