094 Rob and Al of Robal's Food Truck

A food truck can look like the dream until you’re double-frying fries in a tiny kitchen, guessing crowds at breweries, and trying to pay every bill on time. Rob and Al of Robal's Food Truck walk me through what it really takes to turn a long-running idea into a local success story, and why “working for ourselves” is the point even when it gets stressful. 

We get into the food first because their menu is the hook: the Double Yoi double smash burger, the CBR chicken bacon ranch with house-ground chicken thighs, and loaded fries that are fresh-cut. If you care about scratch cooking, comfort food done right, and the best food to pair with a great Pittsburgh beer, this one is for you. 

We zoom out to the story behind the truck: a friendship that starts in Boy Scouts, two grandmas who shaped their taste and work ethic, and the leap from corporate food life to mobile food freedom. They share how they landed their truck, what they’re learning about selling out versus over-prepping, and where you can catch them at Pittsburgh breweries like Hitchhiker, Trace, Grist House, and Allegheny City. 

If you like the show, subscribe, share it with a friend who loves Pittsburgh food trucks, and leave a review so more people can find us.

Transcript

Meet The Robal's Food Truck Team

Doug 0:00

Welcome to The Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. How have two longtime friends turned a passion for food and creativity into a sense of independence? This week, we learn the story of Robal's Food Truck. All that ahead, stay tuned. The Pittsburgh Dish is supported by Chef Alekka. If you're looking to sharpen your own culinary skills or host that next amazing dinner party, Chef Alekka can make it happen. Check out her website at chefalekka.com to check her calendar, her services, and book your next event. Now, on to the show. Well, thank you guys so much for coming over and for being on the show. Would you introduce yourselves to our listeners and what you have going on right now in the world of food? And Rob, why don't we start with you? Sure.

Rob 0:59

Well, my name is Rob Rattanni. Uh we've I opened Robles Food Truck with my buddy Al here about uh two years ago. This is our second year on the road. Second year. Second year.

Doug 1:07

Did I just see uh February was your anniversary?

Rob 1:10

February 7th was our anniversary. Congratulations. We knocked it out of the park for the first year. I believe so. Yeah. All the bills are paid, we were paid. I really can't complain. We didn't have a bunch of people knocking at our door, like, where's our money? So we're good. That's always good. Yeah, I felt very successful. Now our second year going into it, where it's a little bit of a slow start, still some snow underground, getting a little rougher people coming out, you know, but they're breaking out of their show.

Doug 1:32

That's right.

Rob 1:32

Um, but uh we're really looking forward to the second year.

Al 1:35

I love that. And Al, how about you? Oh, well, you know, I'm just uh Al Lombardozzi over here. I guess uh I don't like to call myself chef, but I guess we consider myself the chef here. And um last year we only started the second week, I think, of February, and for some reason we cracked it out of the park. But uh unfortunately all that snow buildup has kind of stopped us, and um just like you said, people were having trouble coming out of their shelves this year, I guess.

Doug 1:59

You know, we're we're just we're gonna get over that hump here in just a moment. And so I have to back up and say, so uh the food truck is do you say Rob Als or Robals? Or what do you like to say? Because it's the combination of your first names.

Rob 2:12

Yeah, that's it. That's it. So we first started making it. I'm like, what are we gonna call ourselves? Like, what do we do? And I'm like, why don't we just mush our names together? And we'll just call it robals.

Doug 2:20

Robal's.

Rob 2:21

So that's what you like. Is that the pronunciation? That was the pronunciation. That's what we we go for. But everybody walks by the truck and goes, Holy crap, Rob Als is here. All right, you might need to own it. Well, we do. I hey, whatever you feel comfortable calling us, I don't really care. You're coming up and buying something, say whatever. You can call us Joe's.

Doug 2:40

It's cool. Okay, so let's do this. If folks haven't discovered you yet, why don't we describe some of the cuisine, some of the dishes and things you're serving up from the truck today?

Smash Burgers CBR And Loaded Fries

Rob 2:50

Sure. The way you put it's kind of a newer question, I should say. But the way that I like to explain it is I'm very ADHD, and whatever sounds good to me, I try and just, you know, I'm a visual person. I have to see in front of me. So if I make it, it's great. And if I have super faith in my food, then that is what we want to put on the menu. I am super critical of what I cook. I can I can make you food and you could say it's the best thing I ever had. And I'm sitting here going, Oh, it sucks. So I think we're our own worst critics, right? Yeah, we definitely are. But then uh, you know, partnering with him, we were uh roommates for five years, and you know, other than being friends for what 25 now, we ended up just zinging off each other, you know, coming home after the bars and stuff, like, hey, what can we make tonight? And it was just it was our recipes, good munchy food too. Great munchie food, or it was our grandmother's recipes that because I grew up with my grandmother, he grew up with his grandmother, and it was pulling back those older generational recipes, and then we're putting our new age twist on it. And you know, our grandparents wouldn't make anything spicy, but we're doing that new niche thing, and it it's it just comes off top, like top level. So uh that's where we've have been having a lot of fun with it.

Doug 4:01

And Al, so like just kind of going through some of the current things on the menu right now. We've got sandwiches. Right. Right now, what are some of the biggest hitters? Like, you do a lot of sandwiches and a lot of other fun things, loaded things. What do you find that you're you're cooking up the most right now?

Al 4:16

Well, uh, right now our biggest hitter is obviously a double smash burger. It's called the double yoi. Um the double yoi. Double yoi. That's a little Myron Cope for me. Yeah, I love that. Um, and then I would say our second is probably the uh CBR, it's uh actual chicken patty that we cook up. Yeah, what's the the initials CBR stable?

Doug 4:34

Chicken bacon ranch. Chicken bacon ranch.

Rob 4:36

That was one of our old school staples. Like we were we were just hanging out together. I'm like, what do you want? Chicken, bacon ranch.

Doug 4:42

I mean, it's a classic. It's super classic, such great combination.

Rob 4:45

And we grind our own, we house grind our uh chicken thighs. So yeah, nothing, nothing processed. We're we do everything ourselves.

Doug 4:52

A lot of scratch cooking. All scratch, all scratching cooking.

Rob 4:54

Mayos are from scratch, we grind everything ourselves, the bread's from scratch. You know, it's a lot of time, yeah, but at the end of the week, we're going, holy crap, we did it. Yeah.

Doug 5:02

This is what people appreciate. I mean, if they're gonna go out and have a good time, you guys are popping up often at a lot of the breweries right now, but I know you do a lot of other events and we'll talk about that. But this is the food you want to have when you're having like a great beer. And people want to know that they're having good food and not something dumped out of. I know people are doing this, but like, you know, a frozen bag of something, right? We don't want to do that.

Speaker 3 5:23

Right.

Doug 5:24

Yeah. What else do you guys like or you're really proud of that's on the menu right now?

Al 5:28

I would say right now our loaded fries have taken off. We've been selling more than ever. And uh you get a lot of food for a good price. That's what we go with. And they're fresh-cut fries, so you can't go wrong. My favorite. Tell us what's on the loaded fries. Uh well, basically we start with a uh a layer of our fresh-cut fries, double fried. Um, and then we do a little layer of cheese sauce that we have on the truck. And then we do uh we have a half and half mixture of pork and chicken that we add to the fries. Oh. And then on top of that, we do a nice dippy runny egg for you. That sounds amazing.

Rob 5:58

Popped off with the green onions. So don't forget we season those fries too. Season, yeah, cajun season.

Doug 6:05

So good. So good. And so, Rob, do you have a couple of other things that are like favorites or creations that you're really proud of right now?

Rob 6:12

So, my creation that I put on there is the Uncle Tso's chicken sandwich.

Doug 6:15

All right. Like, is this like a General Tso's?

Rob 6:17

It is a General Tso's take on general so I will say all the names that are on this menu, Al came up with.

Doug 6:22

Okay. So he You're the creative, Al.

Rob 6:24

He's a creative. Like I gave him, hey, I want to, I want to make a chicken sandwich. I want to like I like the CBR was already on there. I want to make the the Smash Burger. Uh, we got to have something friendly for the vegans out there. So we got to have, you know, I want to have something mushroom-based. Yes. And I said, hey, I want, I need this done. And two days later, I log in and there's all the there's all the menu names. And I'm like, oh, this is great. So I put the menu together and it was we were able to build our business plan behind that. But uh going back to your original question, the thing that I'm really proud of is the general's or the Uncle Sou's. And and I catch myself all the time, like I just did. I always say General Tso's. Yes. But I'm trying to get behind our brand because we call it the Uncle Tsos. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But uh, you know, that's scratch made sauce ourselves, nothing out of a bottle. And I found this might sound a little biased, but I believe that my General Tso's chicken is better than half the Chinese joints in the city. That's saying something, that's a hot take that they say out there. I I will not, I will not like give myself credit if I don't believe it. And this is one thing that nobody's gonna change my mind on.

Doug 7:28

You believe in it? You might have to bottle that sauce or something, a little like side side sale. Uh, I haven't had that one. So it does it have broccoli in it. We uh it's a pickled red pepper broccoli.

Rob 7:39

Oh yeah.

Doug 7:40

I love a pickle too, it just brightens everything up. Oh, that's so good.

Rob 7:43

I was looking at something, you know, like I love General Tso's chicken. And there was a place in our old old hometown that other than it was called uh Seshuan Wok, and it's now gone, but you could never find chicken, like General Tso's chicken, like they made it. The way they did it was it was absolutely amazing.

Doug 8:00

Special.

Rob 8:00

It was so good, so special. And then it's it's sold, it was never the same, and now, like I said, it's gone. And I'm like, I have to try and recreate that.

Doug 8:09

So you created this like reverse engineered from like taste memory. Yep.

Rob 8:13

Wow, and I and trust me, there was a lot of failures, a lot of failures. I'm like, this is horrible, but now I believe I knocked it out of the park. I love that. You can ask him because I eat like two or three of them a week.

Doug 8:24

I guess this would be like the most dangerous thing for me. Right working in uh in this type of food, which is my go-to. I I just have to sort of wonder. Two years in, it sounds like you guys are just having like great success. Where did this business even get started? Like, was this an idea between the two of you? What did you know? What didn't you know? Like, give us a little history of of getting this food truck together.

Al 8:50

It's uh it's been going on for it's probably our longest. I mean, since we've been friends, really. Yeah, it's been going on more than 10 years. Just the idea. The idea, yeah, just the idea, and like let's do it. But we never had a good time, we kind of already had our things going, and uh just eventually got to the point where it's like we're not gonna do it now, we're never gonna do it. Yeah. So let's get it out of the way and go for it 100%.

Rob 9:13

Yeah. When we pulled the trigger, we just we went all in.

Doug 9:16

And where do you begin? Had like over this, like, say, 10-year thinking period, were you doing any research? Like, what does it take to get a truck? Like, how do we get a license? Like, you were you doing that homework?

Rob 9:27

I was trying to talk to new businesses, like how they got up and started. I was trying to, you know, just get my foot in the door somewhere. And you know, I think it was a lot me being scared of what's out there because there's a lot of people. The second you start your business, you owe a lot of people money. Yes, and that's that's a little stressful. And it's it's you know, but when you I will say, when you start paying those people their money and they have no room to talk anymore, it feels so great. Like you you feel so powered, you know.

Doug 9:53

You've you've you've overcome a hurdle, right?

Rob 9:55

You you feel powerful to a point because you're like, oh, look how powerful I don't got any money now. But but it you feel great. Someday, and you you guys work for yourselves. That that is, I think, the main point. Uh, when we were talking, you know, I've had horrible bosses. I would like I said we lived together. I'd come home and I'd complain. He'd come home, he'd complain. And then I'm like, why are we why are we making these people their money?

Speaker 3 10:17

Yeah.

Rob 10:18

I want to make it for ourselves, and we're proving that we can do it.

Doug 10:21

And you liked to cook, would love to cook. And you knew some flavors that you loved. Yep. Yeah. That's so great. Yep. I sort of want to stick with the um getting the food truck going line of thinking. You know, I have no idea what it takes. Did you all have any mentors, uh, people you talked to, or resources, classes? Like, like, where did you find the information to like give you that confidence to take the next step and then the next step?

Al 10:46

A lot of luck. I mean, honestly, especially that last little bit. It was it was uh I would say at least 50% luck. Uh right moment, right time, I guess you would say.

Rob 10:54

Originally, we bought the old Bridge City Brinery truck.

Doug 10:58

Okay.

Rob 10:59

And I worked for Mark and Joe when they owned it. And they two partners, they they had a good thing going. They split to do their own things. Like they're two great dudes, they're they're super successful. And without their invitation to bringing me on, because they wanted to hire me as an employee. And after 17 and a half years at a corporate place, I was like, I was burned. Like, you know what? It's time for me to. It was it was a scary move because I was making good money, but my my life and schedule was just so dictated by what they were telling me to do. I'm like, I I want to try something else.

Doug 11:34

In the corporate world, you wanted to bust out of that.

Rob 11:36

I wanted to bust out of it because no matter how big my voice was, it was never heard. And if it was Harried, it was, oh yeah, thanks.

Speaker 3 11:42

Okay, yeah, so look at you.

Rob 11:44

Come on.

Doug 11:44

But uh and this was a corporate food world. Yeah, corporate food world. Okay, yeah.

Rob 11:48

And and now that I'm out of that and I'm back in to then when uh I was given the opportunity to go work on the food truck with those guys, um, I I loved it. And then the owner didn't want to do mobile food anymore, and I was like, this is the best opportunity that I think we're gonna have. And I said, Well, I already think you found the guy you're gonna sell the food truck to.

Friendship Backstory And Early Food Life

Doug 12:07

Oh, that's amazing. So that's how we got in. That is truly good, fortuitous climbing, all of it. Yep. I I did want to ask, you've known each other for a while. Long time. So, like, this is a partnership, there's a lot of trust here. Can we kind of go back a little bit and do a little backstory? Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. Where did you guys first meet? Did you grow up together?

Rob 12:28

So I met Al in Boy Scouts. Okay, yeah. My uh my uncle was a scout master, and you know, I was there, I knew about it growing up, and because my older brother was a scout, and I got into it, and then a year or two later, here comes Al. And then uh we we were friends during high or we were friends during scouts and everything. And Al might give you a little different opinion of I was a little different back then, but you know, like it was weird we lost touch for a good what 10 years? 10 years, yeah. And randomly I was just driving down the road with my brother, and I'm like, Do you remember that? Al let's call him. And I called him and he's like, What's up? And we we we hung out that day, and honestly, it's it's pretty much been ever since.

Doug 13:11

Wow, yeah, how interesting. Yeah, and you guys grew up locally in the region?

Rob 13:15

Yeah, I I grew up in New Stanton. Okay, and he's from Hermony. All right, so he went to Hempfield, I went to York, so yeah, neighbor neighboring rivalry schools, but we were never like the super school people anyway.

Doug 13:26

So but you just became friends a little bit later in life. Yep. And then let's talk a little bit more about like food life. You've both worked in food gr growing up, right? Correct. Yeah, yep. And so tell me a little bit more about that. As a youngster, what was food life at home, or like when did you start cooking?

Rob 13:46

Oh man.

Al 13:47

Well, uh, I I grew up mostly with my grandma, and I was very lucky. I pretty much had a home cooked meal every day. Oh my goodness. And uh I I'm never gonna get that again, and I really miss it. But it was uh just how she worked with like really nothing, it seemed like, and just made such good meals she made my pap. It was just something else.

Doug 14:04

Oh.

Al 14:05

What's a favorite? I I would have to say my grand's meatloaf. Oh. Otherworldly. And then uh she also, I mean, it's not a big one, but spaghetti and meatballs. She wasn't even Italian and she knocked it out of the park. You can't get wrong with either one of those. Absolutely.

Doug 14:17

Yeah.

Rob 14:18

His grandma made zucchini relish.

Al 14:21

Wait, wait, zucchini relish? Zucchini relish, yeah. It looks exactly like you would think it's pickled relish, but it's actually zucchini that they cured in a certain way that tastes just like it's some of the best relish you're ever gonna have. I've never had it.

Rob 14:33

I hate relish. And I I started eating it because another thing that we would do, we'd come home, was we'd start making uh egg tacos, like breakfast tacos. And he pulled out this relish, and I'm like, what the hell? I ain't eating that. What is that? And he's like, Oh, try it. Well, then he got mad because he came home. There was no more relish. You ate it all. I ate it all. I destroyed it. I'm like, your grandma make more. Like, I just oh my god. His grandma's relish is just out of this world.

Doug 14:56

Al, do you know how to make this relish now?

Al 14:58

Oh, we do have a recipe, and we're honestly probably gonna try it this summer. We just didn't have a chance to really do anything with it last year. Yeah, it is a little bit of a process, but uh we gotta try it out.

Doug 15:09

If you make a batch, hopefully it lasts like what, one to two years. Oh batch, and then you have it in the truck. Yeah, it just sounds great.

Rob 15:15

Yeah, and plus we've been uh tinkering with our own hot sauce.

Doug 15:18

Yes.

Rob 15:18

Last year I did a crazen, I used uh crazins and uh scorpion peppers. Wow. So it was it was smoky, it was sweet, it was hot. It was just it had every weird every weird balance. It was just like, all right, but you couldn't ever guess where the palate was gonna take you.

Doug 15:33

Right. Yeah, I like that. You know, there's a hot sauce festival in October. Really? You should go. Sure. Anyway, um, I want to stick with you a little bit more, Al. So grew up with grandma and pap, got amazing home-cooked meals. You're the chef of the truck now. When did you start cooking?

Al 15:49

Uh, not till late. Because uh, like I said, I started off as a dishwasher and then I was a caterer and I was pretty much just cooking fried chicken. And where where was your restaurant experience? Uh, I was called uh the Colonial Grill. It was in Irwin PA. Okay. Um, and they had this old, old uh Henny Pennies, deep fried chicken. Oh. And uh I I didn't start cooking until very late. In fact, I think Rob was cooking before me on the line at least. And uh I don't know, once I got into it, I just you know couldn't get out of it, I guess. Yeah. Is the Colonial Colonial Grill? Is it still open? Oh yeah, no, it's still going. It's been going for about 60 years. So I don't know. I don't see it still on anytime soon.

Doug 16:24

All right.

Al 16:25

And uh Rob, back to you.

Doug 16:26

Like what about you and food life as a youngster and growing up? Like, what was food life like at home for you?

Rob 16:32

It was the same deal. I was more or less with my grandmother, and uh, she would always tell me a story where like when I was a baby, she she couldn't put me down. Even when she was cooking, like I would just lose my mind. So it's like I was I was in her arms as she's cooking these meals, and I was just kind of lack of a better term, destined to do it. My grandma's the best person in the world, but she's also like some of the funniest things because I was I'll I'll tell her the best idea I have for food. I'm like, grandma, I'm gonna make a chicken sandwich, you know, which my general says it has broccoli, and she'll tell everybody, Oh, it's so good. His food is so delicious. And I'm like, What'd you like about it? Oh, I don't know, I never ate it.

Doug 17:08

She'll tell you it's the ultimate promoter. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's to be. Yeah. Your grandma, I think you mentioned to me you're off mic Italian cooking. Yeah.

Rob 17:16

Yep. Italian cooking. So she is uh her parents were straight off the boat. So uh I was lucky enough to grow up with that. Uh, she made me and my grandfather homemade meals every day, and and then that went for anybody in the family. And my grandma was the type of person was you stop in, you're hungry, she's gonna make you food. Yeah, or she has something for you. Of course, and it was for anybody, and you know, there was somebody down in the neighborhood, she was the one knocking on your door, like, hey, here you go.

Doug 17:40

I think both have mentioned grandmas are kind of magical. Oh, yeah. They can make something out of nothing, yeah, and it tastes amazing.

Rob 17:45

So if if you kind of see the goofy names that we have on the truck, and like I said, I gave Al all the credit to the goofy names. He uh always called my grandma, like, because he would always hang out at my house, and I live with my grandma for a little bit, and he would always call my grandma yams, and and then it was the it was he was calling his grandmother yams. Like it was, it was it was just hilarious. So we made my grandmother always made salmon patties. So for Lent last year, we we're gonna put it back on this year. We made the Yams salmon patty. Oh everybody thinks it has yams in it. Yams, it's just a play on her grandmother's name, but I'll tell you, it we knocked it out of the park.

Doug 18:18

Well, this is timely right now. We're recording right before Lent starts, so uh we'll see it back on the menu. Oh, yeah. I love that. Yep. I I want to go back to your grandma cooking. I asked Al this question. Is there a favorite dish or something that really stands out that you're like, my favorite dishes she made was city chicken.

Rob 18:36

City chicken. Love city chicken.

Doug 18:37

All right, tell folks if they don't know, because it's not chicken. It's not chicken. What is it? It's pork. It's pork.

Rob 18:43

It is a and and I actually didn't know this until I did my research on it. It's like a pretty big Pittsburgh, Eastern Ohio staple. Like it is, you know, the the families back in the mill days that didn't have that much money, they were making city chicken.

Doug 18:55

Chicken was expensive. Super people don't realize that, but pork was much less expensive. Yep. Yep. And did she do the thing where she pounded something thin or no?

Rob 19:04

No, it's it's actually cubed pork. Cubed. Cubed pork. It's either the shoulder or the tenderloin. Okay. And uh you skewer it through like three or four cubes on a skewer. All right. Now here's where it gets a little weird. Uh my grandmother would take it's usually people flour, egg, flour, or flour, egg, breadcrumb. Nope. You flour, egg, hot pan.

Doug 19:24

Flour, egg, hot pan. Yep.

Rob 19:25

And then eggs on the outside.

Doug 19:27

On the outside.

Rob 19:28

Yeah. It gives you the it's kind of like a Chinesey dish, you know? Like you're you're getting like the like an egg fu young. You got that like the nice soft egg in there, but you still got a little bit of crunch with the rice, but there's nothing of that there. It's just it's just flour, egg, and pork. And it is, I actually made it last night. It's phenomenal. Wow. Yeah.

Doug 19:46

This is totally different. This is your take, grandma's take on it. Yep. Has this ever shown up on the food truck? It has not. We're trying to figure out a way to maybe a skewer of some sort someday.

Rob 19:54

Uh last year we did do brisket tacos. And so we we made a brisket. It was my birthday. I made a brisket, and of course, just me and him. So I'm like, what the hell do we do with 20-pound brisket? We ate two pieces of it. So I'm like, well, let's let's serve it on the track. A little, a little special. Put my hot sauce on it. We made brisket tacos. It was what we do, like one for eight, two for 15, and it flew. I bet. It was insane.

Doug 20:19

It's gotta be an amazing taco.

Rob 20:21

We had like little old ladies that, you know, because we put on there, it was a little spicy. This little old lady, I felt so bad. She's in the brewery. I thought she was crying. She's sweating. She's sipping her beer, eat a taco, sip her beer, take a bite of taco, another pant, sip her beer. I'm like, is she all right? She's just she's like, yeah, I was so hot. And I'm like, I'm so sorry about that. And she goes, No, no, I'm gonna keep eating it. It's so good. People love some spice.

Doug 20:44

No, yeah. Uh uh, not me. I'm a little bit of a heat wimp, but uh, I'd still down a brisket taco. Thank you. It sounds so good.

Al 20:52

Hi, this is Rob. Hi, this is Al from Robal's Food Truck. And you're listening to The Pittsburgh dish.

Where To Find The Truck

Doug 21:00

Well, I love the whole backstory and and so happy for your success. I do want to kind of bring it back to the business now. So I noticed on Facebook you said you were changing some things up. You're out and about here in January and February, although it's been a little slow, and you want to really start getting out in in March of 2026 and beyond. Can we just list what are some of the regular spots that you're pulling up to? Sure.

Rob 21:23

There are regular spots. We're at uh Hitchhiker, and there's two locations at Hitchhiker. There's one in Sharpsburg, and there's one in Mount Lebanon. We alternate Sundays there, and we do have the first Saturdays of the month there. We do Trace Brewing up in Bloomfield. Uh great brewery, great people. They have some of the best staff. It's when we pull in, it's like an extension of ourselves. They treat us like family.

Doug 21:44

Oh, it's cool. They have great coffee too.

Rob 21:46

Their coffee is insane. Yes. And I will say this I didn't know this before I got into this business, and I think it is just the friendliness of everybody because you know, a lot of these breweries are also locally owned. They started their own thing. Yes. But when you Pull into these breweries, it's different to me because it's like 12 one o'clock in the afternoon, you know. You guys ready to start drinking? Give us a couple hours. Yeah, we've got a little bit of work to do right now. Like, I want to. Temptation. But uh, you know, we do Trace, uh, we Hitchhiker, uh, we do Old Thunder. We picked up Grist House this year. Okay. Uh Grist House in Millville has been super solid for us for the times we would be able to take there. And uh, again, their staff is super knowledgeable about the beer, their beers, and their products that they have, and it just feels good being there. Um, we do Stick City up in Mars. It's a little bit away from the city. It's probably the furthest one we do. I would say it's the best brewery out of the city. Oh, everybody rants and raves about that one. And I, you know, it was it was weird that we got put onto it too, because some guy had an opening in his schedule. He was double booked, and he said, Would you be able to take this for me? I said, Yeah, sure. Yes. And I I contacted the owner. She would love to have us there. And she goes, So we're gonna be pretty busy. Everybody says they're gonna be pretty busy.

Doug 23:02

Right. But you're trying to get uh you're trying to get kind of a number, a kind of an idea kind of.

Rob 23:06

I don't want to take five thousand dollars worth of food and do $200 and be like, oh no.

Doug 23:10

No, that doesn't work.

Rob 23:11

It doesn't work. We just burned ourselves. Well, we we we took a we we maxed out the truck, we took everything, we sold out in three hours. Wow. I had ranch and flour left. Wow, like it was insane. That's a good, bad problem. It was a great, it was a great bad problem. I said to the owner, I'm like, I do apologize. And she's like, What are you talking about? Everybody left, you're happy. Oh my gosh. But uh, you know, that that's been I think the the toughest struggle in this business is seeing where where we got to be at.

Al 23:38

Right. You're still kind of learning the crazy. We're trying to get those numbers down, you know. Some days we just get smashed, like he said. I mean, we were we we never run out of fries in Stick City, just like it was more like two and a half hours.

Rob 23:48

We were already out of fries, and we were like, oh 85 pounds of fries. Wow.

Al 23:53

It's a lot of fries on a truck.

Doug 23:54

That's crazy. Anywhere else? Did we mention Allegheny City? Oh, Allegheny. We were just there this past week.

Rob 24:00

We were just there at Allegheny City. We were there every second Saturday of the month. Love Allegheny City. Again, extension of ourselves there, like their staff is a lot of the I can't just name a one brewery that their staff isn't great to us because every brewery that we go to, it's the it's different too because the people are happy to work, especially coming from a corporate food environment. You know, when I would walk into work, it was, oh man, don't ask anybody how their day is because I'm gonna get an earful. Now it's now it's you walk in, everyone's hey, hey, it's so glad to see you. But it's it's amazing.

Doug 24:31

Uh well, I would like to I'd love to ask you guys this question. You are working for yourselves, so I'm sure there's stresses, oh yeah, but it's so different than working for someone else. And you are oftentimes setting up at all these great breweries. The whole point is to relax, have a good time. What is your favorite thing about the work you're doing?

Al 24:50

Uh I would have to say we have to push ourselves, correct? I mean, it is us, it's nobody else. There's no nobody that we could fall onto. But um, I kind of like how he said, you know, we're not getting an earful. If it's an earful, it's just me and him basically calling each other out. Yeah, this is what we gotta do. The best feeling though is when we give somebody that pork sandwich, sandwich now, and they go, Well, I don't think I could eat all that.

Rob 25:16

So that is because food truck, food trucks are definitely a little bit more pricey. And you know, people look at that like, oh my god, they're just trying to make money. Step into my shoes for one second.

Doug 25:28

It's a business. It's a business. But you also you're doing all the scratch cooking. Yep. Right. And and where do you uh side question? Where do you prep things? Do you guys have a like a home base? Commissary in Etna. We're in Etna.

Rob 25:40

Yep. Okay. Yeah, it's uh, you know, and that's a new new thing for us because this is our space. You know, we have our own walk-in, we have our own ovens, we have our own mixer. It's it's just insane that it's it's our freedom. And it's it's ourselves pushing ourselves to be better, not like uh, I guess I'll get to this point when they let me. Nope. Nope. We've been checking every single box.

Doug 25:59

Is this your own commissary or do you share it with anyone? Uh it's our own. It's our own. Yeah. So you can kind of do whatever you want. Whatever we want. I mean, that that leads me to something else. We've been talking a lot about that. You you post up at the breweries, but you do other events if folks reach out and contact you, right? Yep. And so how does that work? If I, whether it's corporate event or wedding or kids' birthday or whatever, like how do you like to handle that if people are kind of interested in bringing you into something like that?

Rob 26:26

I am a little brand new at the whole Instagram thing. It it's really easy to like you got, I have an eight, I have email, I have Instagram, I have Facebook. Uh, it's really easy to overlook that when people are or you got people on different platforms messaging you, oh, hey, when you come in here, when here's my phone number, give me a call. Okay. That's the easiest way. If you would like to set something up, reach out to me in email. I'm gonna give you my phone number, just reach out to me. And then you want to do that consultation because you don't know what they've got going on.

Doug 26:56

Exactly. But the initial like reach out, you like an email or uh or an Instagram, whatever GM.

Rob 27:01

Yeah, pop pop yourself in, but that's the bad thing about Instagram too, because it all goes through the request folder. I'm like, why the and then I I miss it. Yes, like, well, I didn't mean to be rude, but I didn't see it.

Doug 27:11

Exactly. It's technology thing.

Rob 27:13

Oh my life. I thought I was really good at it when I was a kid making fun of the older people, and now here I am.

Doug 27:17

Well, you're much younger than me, so you're still probably better at it. Well, let's do this. So, you know, you're in your second year, uh, things are going great, you've got all of this lineup throughout the year. Are there any other goals or events or anything like you're looking forward to in 2026?

Al 27:36

We would really like to hit Picklesburgh. I think we have something to offer if we can't get in. Again, that is a pretty big um, but we would love to hit Picklesburgh. And we would also just like to be doing more of the uh festivals around town because we missed out a lot on last year, our first year. We didn't get into a lot of them.

Rob 27:52

So yeah, hopefully Millville Music Festival will come through now that we have uh a little bit of uh Gristhouse in there. So they always do great. You're still feeling it out.

Doug 27:59

Yeah, that's and people are discovering you, yeah, right. So I love that for you guys. We've mentioned it a little bit already, but let's make sure listeners know your website or your social handles and really how you like to get in contact the best. Can you remind us of those? Roblas.food is our R-O-B-A-L.

Rob 28:19

R-O-B-A-L-S.food.food is our website.

Doug 28:22

Okay.

Rob 28:22

Uh you can go to Roblas Mobile, because it, you know, it rolls off the tongue for Instagram. And then Roblas Food would be Facebook.

Doug 28:29

Roblas Food on Facebook.

Rob 28:31

Now, Facebook and Instagram, if I post on Instagram, it does double over to Facebook. But for some reason, not the other way. If I put something on Facebook, it doesn't go to Instagram. So I try and just but then the come on, meta. Yeah, what's going on?

Doug 28:44

It doesn't? No, just it's only from Instagram. No, that's only from Instagram over. Yeah. Oh, but yes, I've learned that too. And so you have this website too. If somebody wants to reach out to you, DM on Instagram, or is there an email through the website?

Rob 28:56

There is an email through the website, a contact us page. Um, you can go roblesfood at gmail.com. You can send us an email there. All of our events are linked to the website. Um, but has Al said, so we came out with the apocalypse, his name. Great, great, great sandwich. The slaw is a mayo-based slaw. So you know, I get like three, four days out of it. Well, when I was when I got hurt and you know he wasn't feeling well and I was trying to make up for lost time. I'm like, I don't want to make a mayo-based slaw because it's only gonna last here. And if I don't use it today, then it's just wasted product. I don't want to do that. So I just just I had the stuff on the truck, and I'm like, I'm gonna call it the sand weach. It sounds funny, and I want to hear people ask for it. So we I call it the sandwich. It's uh our braised pork. Uh, we braise it for 18 hours. I add pickle jalapenos on top, I add two pieces of bacon and a piece of American cheese on our on our homemade bread. Let me tell you, this thing outsells the a pork ellipse five to one.

Doug 29:57

The sandweech. The sandweech. I also love the little kind of jokey nod that you want people to say that word. That is so fun.

Rob 30:05

We we came out with a sandwich. Uh a brewery asked us to do a sandwich for the for Oktoberfest, and Al came up and he named it.

Al 30:13

Yinz are the Wurst. Yeah, yins are the worst. This is great. Basically, we made like a sausage batty.

Rob 30:19

It was when people come up, so we worst W-U-R--S-T. And then we did like the little motley crew dots over the U. So Good. And then people were coming up, and we ran out of everything except for that sandwich because we had a lot, it was a special. And they're like, Oh, what do you have left? And I'm like, Oh, we have the Wurst. Oh, wait, that don't sound good. Tell people they're like, the worst one? What do you mean? But not it, it was we've had uh the summer was a little rough for us. I broke my ankle. Uh-oh. Al went through some health issues. It was, I'm here, you're here. Al doesn't drive the truck. I drive the truck. But uh, you know, he had a can I talk about that? He uh he's he's probably not the best big box truck driver. I'm not trying to toot my own heart, but that's yeah, that's that's what it's you're in the fine details, you're not in like the bigger thing. He he does I just make sure the truck gets from point A to point B. And and it it has been, but it it was definitely tough driving it one footed with the broken ankle. Yeah, and then especially, you know, when he he wasn't able to make a couple days, and you know, I'm like hobbling off and on. It was it was a fun experience.

Doug 31:28

But do you guys ever think about bringing someone else on?

Rob 31:31

Uh we do. Yeah, just uh we need to get to the point where we feel comfortable where we can afford it.

Doug 31:37

I think that that's the risk, right? It is your business, right? So there's all this freedom, creativity, self-challenge. But if you're sick or you got a broken ankle, things change really quickly.

Rob 31:49

Yep.

Doug 31:49

Yeah.

Rob 31:50

My brother was able to help me out on so okay, this is one of the best. We were at Allegheny City, and we're all hiked up because it's like it was like one of the last days we were gonna be, it was one of the last nice days we were gonna be there. And they said, Hey, we're gonna, we're Billy Strings was in town, we're gonna let some vendors set up in our parking lot. I'm like, well, who's gonna like Allegheny City and PPG, they're a little ways away. Like, who's gonna come over there for some merch? Oh my god. So Al called me and said, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna be able to make it in. And I'm I'm losing it. I'm like, oh my god, are you serious? So I'm I'm trying to be all big macho man, and I say to my brother, oh, I don't need your help. I don't need I'll be fine, I'll be fine. Well, he's like, No, I'm coming to help you. And thank, thank, thank God he did. Yeah. Because we I I've never seen that day stood out. We had a line that wrapped around Allegheny City for three, four hours.

Doug 32:42

My goodness.

Rob 32:43

I was I'm looking, I'm like, look, I am super, super grateful to be in this sort of situation. I've done this kind of work for other people, but when you put yourself in that situation, you're like, oh my God, what is happening?

Doug 32:54

Yeah, the stress. There's so stress. But we made it through it. Yeah. Oh man. And I guess as a side question, you've trained each other on like how to do everything on the line. So yeah. If you're if Al is sick, even though he's controlling the kitchen, so you can make all the dishes. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Rob 33:09

As much stress as I've gone through this year, I wouldn't take it back for nothing. We've been having a great time.

Doug 33:14

It sounds like you guys are having a ton of fun.

Rob 33:16

Yeah.

Doug 33:17

I'm so excited for your success. Keep doing it.

Rob 33:19

Yeah, we're we're looking forward to seeing you there.

Doug 33:21

I can't wait. All right, guys. I always have an ending question for the guests. The name of the show is the Pittsburgh Dish. What's the best dish that you've had to eat this past week?

unknown 33:34

Oh man.

Rob 33:35

That's a tough one. This past week.

Al 33:39

So I recently, it was my father's birthday, and I took him to a little Italian joint called Ranucci's in Sharpsburg Okay. And um, first time there, uh, I had the chicken saltimbocca. Oh. It was probably one of the best things I've eaten in a long time. I've never been. No. Tell me a little bit more about that dish. Like what stood out? Basically, it's just uh really thinly pounded chicken with a little piece of sage in it, and uh it has some uh prosciutto on it. So what they do is they hit that prosciutto side, it gets it all nice and crispy, and they flip it over, they finish, they cook it in like a brown butter sauce. It I I probably should have thought more, but it it just kind of swept me off my feet.

Doug 34:18

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Uh we are recording right before lunch, too. You're killing me. And I've never been thinking about it. I've never heard of that place. Yeah, I'll have to go. Sharpsburg.

Rob 34:26

Yeah, love it.

Doug 34:26

Sharpsburg. Rob, what about you?

Rob 34:29

Oh man. Um, carbonara. Yeah, carbonara. Oh yeah. I made a uh guanchale carbonara the other day. I if I find a recipe, I'm gonna like dip dabble with it. Yeah. My girlfriend said, Hey, I think you should try and make this. And I did, and it was one of those dishes that when I made it, I went, Whoa, that's pretty darn good. Yeah, blew me out of the blew me out of the water.

Doug 34:50

So it might come back around in the rotation.

Rob 34:51

Oh, yeah, definitely.

Doug 34:52

The carbonar with the guanciale, with the egg. You basically don't cook the sauce. Nope.

Rob 34:57

And it was just the the Parmesan Reggiano and the egg yolk. And uh when I when I mixed that up, I'm looking at it, I'm like, there's no way. And then then I let the guanchale, you know, the oil cool. I slowly started whisking that in. I'm like, huh. It started getting a little thick, so I'm like, all right, I added splash more of the oil, I added some more cheese, and I taught I I made my own pasta and I tossed it in there. And I when I mixed it together, I'm like, I'm looking at it like I'm a big eater. I will eat anything, and I'll eat a lot of it, and I'm a fast eater. I took my time with this one.

Doug 35:29

Yeah.

Rob 35:29

It was, and it was so heavy and rich dish. Oh my lord, it was so good. Yeah, I don't understand how it look, I it amazed myself because I pulled it off. I was like, You made it.

unknown 35:39

I did it.

Doug 35:39

Well, both of these sound like the best bites of the week. Al Rob of Robal's. I want to say Rob Al Food Truck. Thank you guys so much for coming over and thanks for being on The Pittsburgh Dish.

Rob 35:54

Well, thanks for inviting us.

Doug 35:57

If you enjoyed the show, consider buying us a coffee for this episode or supporting the show monthly. You can find links to those options at the bottom of our show description. And if you want to follow my own food adventures, you can find me on social media at Doug Cooking. That's our show for this week. Thanks again to all of our guests and contributors, and to Kevin Solecki of Carnegie Accordion Company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned.