Duane Roberts made billions with a food he had started out of complete ignorance: the humble burrito.
It was the 1950s, and his family owned a Butcher Worther called the Butcher boy who sold patties to local restaurants, including one of McDonald’s, a location in San Bernardino.
As the fast food chain and other burger joints grew in popularity, the family restricted other products they could make, Robert recalled in a 2007 interview with the Orange County Register.
A protester who worked at the company, who Robert described as Hispanic, suggested: “Why don’t you make a burrito?”
“I loved Mexican food, but I didn’t know what a burrito was,” Roberts said, “he told the register, saying he was very familiar with enchiladas and tacos.
But the entrepreneurial Roberts went on to turn that brainchild into a bean and beef burrito that could be sold frozen and deep-fried.
Roberts, who would achieve his business success in a prominent story in the Inland Empire Republican Polipublican and find local fame as the owner of the historic Incon Inn, according to his family. He was 88.
The story goes that a Riverside businessman searched the kitchen for two days to find the right burrito. Its sale helped expand the family business from one plant with 60 employees to six with 1,400 employees.
Roberts made millions off the product when he sold the company to Central Soya Inc. in 1980. At the time, the company was generating $80 million in annual sales.
His wife, Kelly J. Roberts, said in a statement that her husband was ‘a businessman with a vision, a devoted husband, and a person whose heart was built [their] family and community. “He said he died peacefully in his sleep.
He described Roberts as a “proud American” who served in the United States Army and was a “strong supporter” of the Republican party.
“[H]He believes in the principles of hard work, perseverance and opportunity, the values that guide both his business and his life,” he said.
Roberts hosted a re-election fundraiser for President George W. Bush in 2003, and his wife was President Trump in Slovenia during Trump’s first term – although he later dropped out of the race, politicians said.
The businessman, who grew up in Riverside, is known for saving the Mission Inn from the brink of demolition.
The hotel – which hosted both the wedding of the Nixons and the honeymoon of the Reagans – closed its doors in 1985, but its renovation dragged on, and the hotel market fell. Roberts drifted in offering $15.6 million, a steal compared to the $55 million spent on renovations, supported by money financed by a chemical bank.
The bank was found, however, we fear more losses. Roberts reopened the Mission Inn in 1992.
“How the Mission Inn was preserved is the happy legend of the heart of the city that began,” former author Daniel Akst wrote after its reopening. “But it’s also an object lesson in what you can do if you’re solvent — and smart — during the extreme recession in southern California from the 1930s.”
Roberts had a strong attachment to the hotel, as his meat company entertained clients there. His mother also loved ornate architecture.
“I like good old things. The Mission Inn is the fabric that holds the community together. Some people are too nice to own. I have my own things to live in,” he told the Register in 2007.
Roberts and his wife have been long-time residents of Laguna Beach, but earlier this year they bought a palm property in Palm Beach at Palm $48.5
He is survived by his wife and adopted children, Doug and Casey.
