We all eat Roberto’s.
For me, it’s a No. 4 combo plate: two beef tacos stuffed with shredded meat, grated yellow cheese and cool slivers of iceberg lettuce, plus rice and beans. It’s a simple, cheap plate of food, and I can’t count how many times I’ve eaten it. Of course, I’m gonna tag those tacos with some smooth red chile sauce, loaded with just enough throat-heat to do some damage. I might drizzle it all over so the sauce can mingle with the lettuce or cheese, or I might dip the meat-filled edge into one of those little plastic cups of this holy red stuff. I have taken many bites of many foods—it’s kinda my job—and this is still a favorite, the combination of skull-shaking corn crunch and tender, salty, meaty satisfaction you get from a simple, cheap taco.
What’s your Roberto’s? Do you do saucy enchiladas or stuffed breakfast burritos? Do you eat carne asada fries and guacamole-slathered taquitos for hangover brunch, or only when you’re drunk and you’ve convinced your friend to make a stop on the way home? Let’s be honest: It’s not hard to convince anyone to hit Roberto’s after a wild night out. There’s nothing spontaneous about it. It’s our routine, a rite of passage.
Reynaldo Robledo—the second youngest of 13 kids born to Roberto and Dolores Robledo, the couple who opened the first Roberto’s Taco Shop in San Ysidro, California, 50 years ago—understands his family’s restaurants are known as the late-night, booze-fueled, guilty pleasure of Las Vegas. And he’s cool with it.
“It’s very true, we do get that crowd that’s been out partying,” he laughs. “I’m not going to name any names, but I meet a lot of people in the community and in the political scene, judges and police officers and officials. When they find out I own Roberto’s, their first comment is always, ‘Boy, those were the good old days, when we used to go out and have fun and end up eating at Roberto’s.’”
Roberto's Taco Shop has always been a family affair.
His parents and older siblings transitioned the family’s tortilla shop into the first Roberto’s back in 1964, and with everyone in the large family working in the business, expansion soon followed.
Roberto’s landed in Las Vegas in 1990. Reynaldo is in charge, with some of his brothers and sisters owning and operating their own shops. The family doesn’t sell franchises to the public at large, instead cultivating a crew of new operators from employees and managers.
There are 48 Roberto’s shops in and around Las Vegas, if you count the one in Mesquite, and almost all of them are open 24 hours, 365 days a week. That’s an amazing feat, if you think about it. I can remember a whiskey-fueled Christmas Eve casino adventure with some out-of-town friends several years back, an insane night that ended with me winning a bet that we’d be able to get those taquitos. At 3 in the morning. On Christmas Day.
Reynaldo says there is a strong sense of pride surrounding the popularity and longevity of his family’s business, as there should be. There’s a similar feeling that comes with those after-hours munchfests at Roberto’s, some sort of celebration with your crew that you’ve accomplished something. You’ve survived another crazy Vegas night, fashioned another story you’ll tell years later. Those were the good old days.
Say what you will about Roberto’s, but recognize its rightful place in our collective history. Roberto’s is sanctuary. It’s a taco-shop chapel, and that No. 4 plate is sacrament.
