A talent for making people feel at ease

Deepa Bharath

Robbie Robfogel was like the Rock of Gibraltar.

He wasn’t supposed to collapse. He wasn’t supposed to give in,

because those around him fed off his strength.

Robbie was confined to a wheelchair after he got polio while

fighting the war in Korea. He had limited use of one hand and one

leg. But he could pick up the phone and write. And that was good

enough for his friend Bob Roubian, owner of Crab Cooker, to hire him

in 1961, 10 years after he started the restaurant.

The two first met at the Long Beach Veteran’s Hospital in 1951.

They hit it off right away. Bob can’t put his finger on what it was

that drew him to Robbie.

“He was a good-looking guy,” Bob said. “He had green eyes. And

once you knew him and started talking to him, you never saw the

wheelchair.”

Robbie moved to Newport Beach to a home he bought for $10,000 on

20th Street by the bay.

He asked Bob if he could work at the Crab Cooker. He offered to

work for free.

“I have to pay you something,” Bob said.

So Robbie started off as purchaser for the restaurant at $1.50 an

hour.

That job was the nucleus of Robbie’s life. He and Bob always

talked about business, whether they spent the day at the races,

played gin rummy or simply hung out at the beach. Both had their

priorities straight -- God first, customer second and family third.

Robbie always had a way with vendors and customers. He was polite

and his manners were impeccable.

He was a mentor to the younger employees at the restaurant. If

Robbie saw something was not perfect, he would be the first one to

point it out.

“Would you serve that to your family?” he’d ask, sometimes.

For him, it was either perfect or nothing.

Disgruntled vendors or suppliers would always come out much

happier after meeting with Robbie. He had a way with people. But it

was not mere smooth-talking. Robbie knew that the best trick was no

tricks. He dealt with people honestly.

When he had some free time, he loved to go to the horse races. One

time, he won $200,000 at the track. He invested the money in a couple

of oil wells that went dry and two race horses that went nowhere.

But he just laughed about it.

“Easy come, easy go,” he’d say.

The horse races were not an obsession for Robbie. It was just

entertainment.

Over the 43 years, he worked at the Crab Cooker, he became its

highest paid employee.

As for Robbie, the restaurant was his life. He came to work every

day for 43 years until the day he had to be hospitalized, two weeks

before he died.

“I miss him already,” Bob said. “I just saw him come in to work

and felt secure right away. I knew that day would turn out just

fine.”