Welcome back to
Robinson’s the way it used to be
VILLAS – Welcome back to the Robinson’s Market of yesteryear.
The Robinson’s you used to know and love. The Robinson’s where
you just had to stop in for a salad or two…or three, and where
you said hello to Chuck Seaton, who managed the kitchen for more
than three decades. Where you picked from Grade A quality
vegetables and fruit, or ordered sandwich trays or luncheon
meats from Wendy Mastriana, who managed the deli for close to 30
years. The Robinson’s before Dave Robinson took ill and was
forced to cut back on the time and effort he and his brother Jim
put into making Robinson’s a daily stop for so many locals and
passersby.
Welcome back because Robinson’s is now owned and operated by
Colleen McCabe, who likes to say she has switched her interests
from politics to potatoes.
“I’ve seen more potatoes in the last week than I’ve seen my
entire life,” said McCabe, the former Lower Township Republican
Party leader who now oversees the making of the many salads
which helped Robinson’s become so well known. “The first
shipment of potatoes we received was 3,700 pounds. If I had my
skis with me I would have skied down them.”
She re-opened Robinson’s March 29 after Dave Robinson shut down
the market in December, as he usually did around Christmastime.
“Dave and I have been discussing this the last few years,”
McCabe said. “I think Dave got to the point where after he did
take sick, he decided to retire, that the time just seemed right
for himself. So then we negotiated the deal, and now I’m making
potato salad and he’s off hunting. He’s actually doing very
well. He’s feeling much better.”
McCabe, whose “real job” is as the assistant director for the
Fare Free Transportation service, used the experience and
knowledge of Seaton and Mastriana to learn all about the
operation before the grand opening, and also leaned on her son
George for help.
“George worked for Dave in the produce section for 10 years,
eight of which were full time and the last two were part time.
Dave told me before that George (a Wildwood Catholic grad) was
the only student he had working there who ever really took an
interest in managing the produce section, and he did it well.
And my daughter Melissa, who will graduate Lower Cape May
Regional in June, helps us out too.
“I’m very fortunate to have the key people back running the
kitchen, deli and produce,” she added. “I spent all winter
meeting with Chuck and Wendy, and I was always up there talking
with Dave. He showed me things as we went along.”
In the few months Robinson’s was closed, McCabe almost literally
took a flame thrower to the place. She filled seven
construction-size Dumpsters, scrubbed the place from top to
bottom, restored the deli entrance and reshaped the entire look
of the place.
“I remodeled the entire inside of it,” McCabe said.
Then she went to work on the quality of the product.
“We went back to a full product line that Dave cut back on. He
had all No. 1 produce and flowers, and the salads are back to
tasting the way they did years ago, the salads were
outstanding…this was a gold mine, you couldn’t get near the
place. I remember going with my mother in the summer and its 95
degrees out and we’d stand there for 45 minutes to get an order
because they were so busy. And we’re still known for our potato
salad.”
Robinson’s sold 65,000 pounds of potato salad in 2006. That’s a
lot of peeling.
“We have a machine that peels them now. Dave had gone to
pre-peeled potatoes, and that was part of the problem on why the
salad wasn’t as good as it used to be, that and the mayonnaise,”
McCabe said. “Now the machine has a kind of sandpaper inside
that scrubs the potatoes until the skin comes off, and then it
pops them out where my mother, who’s 77, her friend, 77, and her
husband, 75, are sitting on stools and they cut the eyes out. We
joke about them being our geriatric unit.
“Then Chuck takes them and cuts them up, and no one can dice as
quick as he can, and he’s still got all his fingers,” she added.
The return to the way things were done in the past has been a
welcome change in Villas.
“The remarks coming back from people are phenomenal…the
appearance, the quality of product, everything we’re hearing has
been very, very good,” McCabe said.
ON THE MENU
Robinson’s Market
2408 Bayshore Road
Villas
886-3190
Open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Parking on premises.
Credit cards accepted.
Best-sellers are the salads (potato, pasta, cole slaw, cucumber,
chicken, white fish, shrimp and more), sandwich trays, hot and
cold sandwiches made to order, roast beef and meatballs.
Rob Seitzinger can be e-mailed
at seitz[at]catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by
calling 624-8900, ext. 250.
Check out his Cape Cuisine food blog