Who are you and what do you do?
I'm Ruben Dasilva and I own Rubiano's. I make pizzas and pastas.
What do you love about San Leandro?
I love that San Leandro is a close knit community, I know a
lot of people here, I was born and raised here.
It's in the middle of a big metropolitan area but it still feels like a
little town.
You went to school here?
I did, I went to St Leander's for a couple of years, also
Garfield and John Muir. I graduated from San Leandro High School in 95
Before you opened your restaurant you worked with Mike Wiesner?
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| Rubin and His Staff at Taste of San Leandro |
I started working for Mike Wiesner when I was 16 years old at
Sergio's on Davis Street, that was a long time ago. That was the original Sergio's. I helped Mike build Paradiso when he got the
lease there, helped him with painting and everything else to get it up and
running. Then I went off to school in
Santa Barbra, came back. Worked with my
Dad doing building maintenance. Then we
opened this (gestured to Rubiano's).
What was your inspiration behind opening a pizza restaurant?
The building maintenance started to slow down and I was
ready to do something new, do something different. I have always wanted to do a pizzeria.
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| Rubiano's creation for my children (chocolate and marshmallow) |
We love that its somewhere you can bring the children and not have to
worry about them being noisy, not just pizza, you can get pasta, salads. You always have some specials.
Every once in a while I will make some different pizzas that
are a little unique and odd. How many
places have you gone to that make a crab Rangoon pizza. What I have found is a lot of people are scared
of trying them sometimes. I will make a pizza
and have everybody (the wait staff) hand
it out. People say "Wow, I can't
believe how good that is" It really tastes like a Crab Rangoon. We have a
floating potato pizza that is really good.
You have beer on tap, but it's not your typical Budweiser?
I try to keep stuff local, not too much big dig chain
stuff. Try and keep it small and local,
little mom and pop beers. Trying to get
another cooler so we can get four more beers in here.
Word of wisdom?
Keep doing what you love to do and don't let anyone tell you
that you can't do it. Lot of people told me that I wouldn't be able to do this
and that I would not survive here. We
survived, we are still kicking and screaming.
Rubiano's
600 Dutton Ave Suite C,
San Leandro, California
510 553 1000
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