Episode 24: Rome’s Kitchen

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

Show Guests: Rome Rogers, Founder, Master Chef at Rome’s Kitchen

Voices of the Community Introduction: Welcome to voices of the community which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members neighborhoods cities and our region. This is George Koster your host. 

Series Introduction: This episode is part of our series exploring COVID-19’s impact on nonprofits and small businesses in San Francisco. We started the series back in April 2020 during the height of the first phase of the Covid 19 pandemic and the Shelter In Place requirements. Over these past nine months, the Covid-19 pandemic and economic meltdown have wiped out millions of jobs in both the nonprofit and small business sectors as well as shuttered tens of thousands of small business operations.

The goal of the series is to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits, small businesses, and their staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability. The series of interviews we conducted features voices from a cross-section of organizations that make up the fabric of our community.  Each of them brings a unique perspective on how they and we are dealing with the issues facing our community during the global pandemic and economic depression.

Show Guest Rome: So, I was one of the only kids walking around with burgers and grilled vegetables. And a lot of kids would say, where did you get that? And I would say, Rome's Kitchen its right in my dorm dorm, 900. And I would, make them some food and give them out around the dorms. And that was years ago. And now, Rome's Kitchen is actually the incubator for my family to help us get to the next level. 

Episode Intro - Show Host George: In this episode, our featured voice is Rome Rogers the founder of Rome’s Kitchen in the bay view hunters point neighborhood of San Francisco. Rome like many food entrepreneurs decided to take his love of food and hard work and invest in himself to pursue his dream of starting his own restaurant. Rome’s Kitchen is a unique Bayview mash-up of Italian and soul food. I’ll let Rome tell you more about how he came up with this unique blend of food and culture 

Show Host George: I'm joined remotely via zoom by Rome Rogers the owner of Rome’s Kitchen. Thanks for being here, Rome. So, Rome, why did you create your small business? Why Rome's, Kitchen? Was it something that was born out of your kitchen, in your house and then incubated out onto, you know, ah restaurant format?

Show Guest Rome: Rome: Yeah.  I would like to start off by saying that I'm truly grateful of this opportunity and the Bayview Bistro as well. But, to answer, your question, the reason why I started Rome's kitchen was cause I was going through a lot of different job endeavors. And I would put in tons and tons of hard work into these different places.

Talking maybe sixteen-hour shifts, tons and tons of overtime. And I felt as if, I didn't see an end to that as far as me progressing any time sooner. And I, realized that there's just a missing gap in my family, as far as opportunity and people starting careers for themselves and having something to pass down.

When I see an opportunity with, there was some local food events they were doing in Oakland. They had music and gallery events. And, I had a nephew of mine that would take me down there and they had food vendors there and the food vendor lines will be so long. And I had tried the food and to be quite frank, it wasn't too good.

So, I, see an opportunity. And I, started bringing my food down there and the reactions that I started getting were just were just off the charts. And the demand started coming. People just started asking me left and right. Hey, can you, can do a pan of this? Can you do a pan of that? So, I just, dropped everything and, decided to put my all into Rome's Kitchen.

George: And Rome, what is a Rome's, Kitchen, cuisine. Can you describe some of your favorite items? Maybe history behind some of the recipes?

Rome: Yeah, we like to call ourselves an Italian Soul Food Catering Company. I came up with that concept because a lot of the dishes that I cook. Or, a lot, even the creations that I come up with, they're just things that I, just tweaked around in the house experimenting with, and I love Italian food and I love soul food. And when I was thinking about the concept, I said, why not bring the best of both worlds together? And, a lot of the dishes and the ideas, they kind of just come from me.

Putting soulful items together, Italian seasons together and mixing them together and coming out with different dishes

George: And Rome, how has COVID-19 impacted your operation?

Rome: COVID-19 has taken a dramatic effect on our operation. As Andrea stated earlier that the Bayview Bistro, as far as the system that we had down at the corridor at 4101 Third Street, that was a great opportunity for me. We were thriving.

We were growing at a, faster rate. We were growing a big crowd of people that were coming down there we were able to reach different crowds. When I say different crowds, I'm saying like construction workers, muni workers, people, of the City cause it was, the perfect peak time from 11:00AM to 3:00 PM. So, with that being shut down and we can do the pop-ups. It's affected us in a dramatic way.

George: And Rome, how have you dealt with it? I mean, Pooja had mentioned the idea of putting together containers, so have you, been able to put together a program where people can do a take-out or, subscribe or, do gift certificates?

Rome: Yes. we've been working with the Bistro. We have our, like Andrea said, we had the different date boxes we've been doing. We've just did a photo shoot for Thanksgiving packages we're doing as well. So, we kind kinda just had they been real creative. We've been blessed with the, Bayview Bistro to do different opportunities as well.

We've been working with Mission Meals and doing different pre-packaged meals as well. So, we've kind of been, haven't been creative and there's been a few organizations that's been helping us stay in float.

 George: Rome, can you share a favorite story of, starting your own restaurant business, your own, eatery, and you know, what it means to you and your family?

Rome: Yeah. I guess I would say, something funny behind the, starting Rome's kitchen. Well, I would say the, I would say the name, I kind of spoken into existence. I laugh about it all the time and me and my friends do cause when I was in college, I went to Cal State East Bay and I would, cook in the dorms and I had a George Foreman grill and a lot of the kids will be asking me, like, you know, in the freshmen dorms, there's only a microwave.

So, I was one of the only kids walking around with burgers and grilled vegetables. And a lot of kids would say, where did you get that? And I would say, Rome's Kitchen its right in my dorm dorm, 900. And I would, make them some food and give them out around the dorms. And that was years ago. And now, Rome's Kitchen is actually the incubator for my family to help us get to the next level.

So just speaking that name into existence and actually just playing around with it, saying as a joke, and now it’s actually my brand.

George: Thank you. That was a great story. So, people that are, watching and listening to this Rome, how can they help you?

Rome: You guys weren't grateful for any type of help that we can get. We are a short man team it’s pretty just me and about two other colleagues. I'm the, running force behind it. And if you guys want to help you guys can, like comment, subscribe to all of our different media outlets that we have. We're on YouTube on Facebook on Instagram, we're on Twitter. We're heavier on the Instagram. You can come out and support us. We host a lot of different pop-ups. You can support us as well by, purchasing items throughout the Bayview Bistro, highlighting that, taking different photos and telling everybody that, you know, I know social media has taken a dramatic effect, but we still have a word of mouth is ah huge social media marketing as well to them as well to get word out.

So, we're open up to anything, any way that someone wants to help us with we'll take it on.

George: And then Rome, would you like to share, your social media, your website, Instagram, where people can check in and make orders share, et cetera.

Rome: Sure, you can find us on Instagram that's Rome's underscore kitchen. We're on Facebook at Rome's our kitchen and we're on YouTube as well as Rome's kitchen. And you can find us on any of those outlets. Our website is www Rome's dash kitchen.com and you can find us as well, through the Bayview Bistro.

George: And then Rome out of, the pandemic and the economy, what would you like to see, some of the positive things happening to help small businesses and restaurants such as yourself?

 Rome: What I would like to see, personally, there's a lot of vacant buildings. There's a lot of vacant old, companies and different store fronts that are shut down here in the Bayview up and down Third Street. I see them a lot. And, I personally would like to have some of these young businesses from the community African American community, minority-based businesses have opportunity to get into some of these storefronts. That's what I would like to see.

George: Well, thank you, Rome for sharing all of your work today, I'm going to make sure that, we'll share out all of your social media, on our websites and in the broadcast itself.

And please stay safe out there as we all deal with, what has become this very strange, new normal,

Rome: Appreciate you.

Episode Outro - Show Host George: That’s it for this episode of voices of the community. You have been listening to the voices of Rome Rogers the founder of Rome’s Kitchen about the creation of his restaurant and catering business as well as the impact of covid-19 on his business. To find out more about Rome’s unique Italian Soul Food go to romes kitchen dot com

Series Outro: We hope that you enjoy the insights, points of view, and personal stories from the voices of change-makers and their nonprofits and small businesses featured in this series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofits, small businesses and staff members, featured in this series please go to my web site george koster dot com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to the extended versions of these interviews and to listen to the entire series. After listening to these stories we hope that you will consider making a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members.

Series Credits: I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada, along with Mel, Michael, and Lila at the San Francisco Public Press and KSFP. To listen to our next episode in this series and to our archived past shows which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities, please go to george koster dot com. While you are on our website please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one. Please subscribe to Voices of the Community on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or where ever you get your podcasts. Follow us on twitter @georgekoster and please email us with feedback and show ideas at george@georgekoster.com. I'm George Koster in San Francisco and thank you for listening.

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Voices of the Community transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Descript. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of Alien Boy Productions’ Voices of the Community’s programming is the audio record.