Duane Roberts made hundreds of thousands off a meals he was initially wholly blind to: the common-or-garden burrito.
It was the Fifties, and his household owned a small meat wholesaler known as the Butcher Boy that bought patties to native eating places, together with one of many first working McDonald’s, a location in San Bernardino.
Because the quick meals chain and different burger joints grew in recognition, the household brainstormed different merchandise they might manufacture, Roberts recalled in a 2007 interview with the Orange County Register.
A butcher who labored on the firm, whom Roberts described as having Hispanic heritage, made a suggestion: “Why don’t you make a burrito?”
“I liked Mexican meals, however I had no thought what a burrito was,” Roberts advised the Register, saying he was extra acquainted with enchiladas and tacos.
However the entrepreneurial Roberts went on to show that seed of an thought right into a bean and beef burrito that may very well be bought frozen after which deep-fried.
Roberts, who would parlay his enterprise success right into a distinguished function in Inland Empire Republican politics and attain native fame as proprietor of the historic Mission Inn, died Saturday, based on his household. He was 88.
The story goes that the Riverside businessman experimented within the kitchen for 2 days straight to get the burrito proper. Its gross sales helped increase the household enterprise from one plant with 60 employees to 6 vegetation with 1,400 employees.
Roberts made hundreds of thousands off the product when he bought the corporate to Central Soya Inc. in 1980. On the time, the corporate was producing $80 million in annual gross sales and producing 1 million burritos every day.
His spouse, Kelly J. Roberts, mentioned in a press release that her husband was a “visionary entrepreneur, devoted husband, and a person whose coronary heart and generosity ceaselessly formed [their] household and neighborhood.” She mentioned he died peacefully in his sleep.
She described Roberts as a “proud American” who served in the US army and was a “staunch supporter” of the Republican Celebration.
“[H]e believed passionately within the rules of arduous work, perseverance, and alternative values that guided each his enterprise ventures and his life,” she mentioned.
Roberts hosted a re-election fundraiser for then-President George W. Bush in 2003, and his spouse was President Trump’s decide for ambassador to Slovenia throughout Trump’s first time period — though she later pulled herself out of the working, Politico reported.
The businessman, who grew up in Riverside, can also be recognized for saving the historic Mission Inn from the brink of demolition.
The resort — which hosted each the wedding of the Nixons and the honeymoon of the Reagans — closed for a significant overhaul in 1985, however the renovation dragged on, after which the resort market collapsed. Roberts swept in providing $15.6 million, a steal compared with the $55 million spent on the renovation, financed by Chemical Financial institution.
The financial institution acquiesced, nevertheless, fearing extra losses. Roberts reopened the Mission Inn in 1992.
“How the Mission Inn was saved is the joyful story of a metropolis’s coronary heart restarted,” former Occasions reporter Daniel Akst wrote after its reopening. “However it’s additionally an object lesson in what you are able to do if you happen to’re solvent — and intelligent — through the worst recession in Southern California for the reason that Nineteen Thirties.”
Roberts had a sentimental attachment to the resort, as his meat firm had typically entertained purchasers there. His mom additionally liked the ornate structure.
“I like lovely outdated issues. The Mission Inn is the material that binds the neighborhood collectively. It’s a heart-welling factor to personal. Some folks have sports activities groups, I’ve my Mission Inn,” he advised the Register in 2007.
Roberts and his spouse have been longtime residents of Laguna Seashore, however earlier this yr they bought a $48.5-million Palm Seashore property, the most recent instance of rich Californians and Trump followers flocking to Florida.
He’s survived by his spouse and his stepchildren Doug and Casey.
