Born in Boston in 1953, Bob relocated with his family to Southern California in 1955. His restaurant career began at age 14 when he worked as a dishwasher/busboy for a coffee shop in Pasadena. He worked his way through college in every restaurant position. He studied landscape architecture, business, and horticulture at the University of California-Pomona.
In 1979, Bob moved to Las Vegas and, as co-owner and general manager, opened Ricardo’s Mexican Restaurant in the Meadows Mall. Ricardo’s Renaissance at Tropicana and Eastern followed, operating from January 1982 until November 2001. Ricardo’s at Flamingo & Decatur originally opened as Santa Fe in 1987, converted to Ricardo’s in 1990. In November of 1997, Ricardo’s opened its largest location in the MGM Grand, along Studio Walk, and operated successfully until its lease was bought out to make room for the new monorail in November 2003. During this time, they opened Fajitas, a quick service concept in the Fashion Show Mall and a larger version at Valley View and Sahara.
Currently, Ricardo’s is operating a full-service Mexican restaurant, Gaming Cantina, and Catering Company Flamingo & Decatur.
Bob is considered one of the founding members of the Nevada Restaurant Association, is Director Emeritus of the National Restaurant Association, is a past president of the Las Vegas Executives Association, served on Valley High School Travel and Tourism Board, and served on the Board of Trustees for the Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to being in the restaurant business for over 40 years, Bob started a private fiduciary services company in 2004 called Professional Estate Administrators, LLC. They provide court appointed and appointed services including estate settlement, receivership work, and trust management.
Bob and his wife, Nin (NEEN), have a son, Eric, and a daughter, Sara, along with a golden retriever and two cats. Besides being passionate about food, Bob also enjoys the outdoors, reading, gardening, traveling, and going on off-road adventures.