Jeffrey Hill and I, Victoria Dacosta; wanted to commemorate the profound effect on us of this special date by making our best effort to write a letter of memoriam that recognizes and celebrates Ronnie’s lasting legacy. Feb 28th will always stand-out in our memories because it is the date of your passing.
We would like to first begin by extending a most-sincere “Thank you” for being such a great friend and truth-be-known, a role-model to both of us.
Jeff & I think alike in many ways and we both acknowledge how great of an athlete you were. For me, Victoria, I remember watching you play basketball with some teenage students at Southwest High School… I must say that it was obvious to me that you were the best player on the court. And Jeffrey can attest to that.
As a result of your influence and example, Jeffrey was able to walk on and make the basketball team at the University of South Florida
Jeff and I reminisce and laugh and even share a few tears at all the fond memories we carry of you, Mr. Arbetter.
I would also like to say that I know that Jeffrey was your best friend growing up and it’s so beautiful and comforting to me to know that. You continue to live in both of our hearts, and for that reason: we find it difficult to find closure. That’s indicative of how much you meant to us.
Jeffrey also shared with me that you were classmates in junior-high (seventh, eighth and ninth grade at Riviera Jr. and in high-school (tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade at Southwest Senior.) where you were both members of the basketball team. And once the basketball season was over your senior year, you (Ronnie) began to work at the family restaurant on Bird Road - “Arbetter Hot Dogs”…
According to Jeffrey … Despite being offered a college scholarship from a small school in Tampa named “Florida College”, you made the decision to stay in Miami, which was after being begged by your Dad not to leave…
The reason was very simple, your father was very nervous because business at the family restaurant was “booming”. And Bob knew that he needed your help to succeed.
Bird Road was a new location for Arbetter Hot Dogs and it was quickly proving to be a goldmine… This was because the Bird Road store was within quick, driving distance of the area’s four, major, high-schools- Columbus, Southwest, Coral Park and Killian and several smaller ones as well.
From this point Jeffrey in his own words will continue about “Arbetter” Hot dogs journey to Bird Road and Ronnie’s legacy in general.
For me (Jeffrey) given the perfect-storm quality of the afore-mentioned facts, the success of the Arbetter store seemed to be almost inevitable.
Bob Arbetter had had several locations for his hot dog restaurant prior to the Bird Road store. The first Arbetters was on Flagler Street and several years later, Bob moved his store to SW 8th street.
One of fondest memories I have, is going with Ronnie when we in eighth or ninth grade to the Arbetters on “8th street” to eat what he promised was “The best chili-dog in Miami.” Since I had never had an “Arbetter’s chili-with-onion” hot dog before, I promptly ate five or six and swore to Ronnie, “Forget Miami… your dad’s hot dogs are the best in the world.” Forty-years later, I still feel that way.
How Bob Arbetter came to open the Bird Road version of Arbetters is in itself a compelling story... One day when Ronnie and I were in high-school at Southwest (I think it was in the fall of ‘72), he came-up to me and said, “You’re not going to believe this crap… but the jerk that owns the store that my dad rents on the trail (8TH St.) is throwing him out.”
What happened, (I learned years later) was that Arbetters was next to a Dairy Queen, and that the man who owned the DQ, owned and rented Bob the space he occupied. Then after years of seeing Bob’s store do better than his, he gave-in to his jealousy and believing that he could emulate Bob’s success- “kicked him out”.
A little sidebar- though I always I knew Bob to be “smart”, I never understood “why” he didn’t have a lease. I tend to think it was his trusting nature… Despite having a degree in business from the University of Miami, he didn’t think like a savvy business-man. Anyway … Bob Arbetter got the last-laugh, because in his desperation, he came across a closed, restaurant property on Bird Road that had previously been an “Arthur Treacher’s Fish-n-Chips”. And this became the new home for Arbetter’s Hot Dogs.
I remember going there (tagging along with Ronnie) when Bob had just signed the papers and was rummaging-through the freezer of what was now his store... I was standing by the front door (trying to be as inconspicuous as possible) and I recall Ronnie laughing as his father held-up a bag of frozen fish while yelling, “I don’t know Phyllis... maybe we’ll just serve fish.” I joined-in and laughed too, but I could tell (even at seventeen) that the Arbetter family was v-e-r-y worried.
In regards to Bob’s wife, Phyllis, her maiden name was Paoletti and she was quite a chef in her own right. Her brother, Lou, had owned a famous high-end, Italian restaurant called “Paoletti’s” in Coral Gables. So Bob knew to seek her input in every move he made at Arbetters… I know for instance, that she is responsible for the Arbetter Hot Dogs chili recipe.
I started working up to thirty hours a week at Arbetters when I was going to Miami-Dade South JC as an eighteen year-old freshman. It was exciting to witness first-hand how Bob’s business was starting to take-off… Back then, there was only one guy “doing-dogs”, i.e. “putting the condiments on the hot dogs”- which would have been Bob and then later Ronnie…
I can still hear Bob yell, “Put more on, m-o-r-o-n!” to illicit laughter from the patrons when Columbus or some other high-school’s kids would start to fill our lot with cars during a typical “lunch rush”.
Suffice it to say… I look back on that time as an unbelievable experience. The fact that Ronnie, Bob and Phyllis allowed me to be a part of Arbetters was a privilege and a truly, precious memory that will always brings tears of joy to my eyes.
I had to talk-about the inception of Arbetters on Bird Road first, because it was such a h-u-g-e part of my life as a young man.
Now that I’ve addressed it, let me move forward a few years to December of 1977….
Bob partnered with Phyllis’s brother Arthur Paoletti to open an Arbetter’s in Hialeah. Since I was that store’s first employee, I came to know his uncle Arthur very well. Maybe three or four months after we opened in Hialeah, Bob and Ronnie left me and Arthur in Hialeah to go open a store on Northeast 6th Ave in North Miami.
Fast-forwarding from 1978 to 1988-91, I can remember stopping at the North Miami store at least once a week over that several year period to visit with Ronnie. Often, what had originally been intended to be a fifteen minute visit; would somehow morph into a several hour B. S. session.
A-l-l of these memories will be treasured …. Partly because they are such a good example of how thoughtful he was.
Once again, thank you for being such a wonderful friend to us.
We love you dearly, Rest In peace Ronnie…
Victoria Dacosta & Jeffrey J. Hill (Miami, FL)
