Rafiq Salim + Benjamin Howell
Ridgewood, Queens
With the circle of life that is the restaurant industry in NYC, we see new spaces pop up all the time. More often than not, our feelings towards NEW NEW NEW are *shrugs*, and that’s what makes restaurants like Rolo’s so exciting. While not entirely new (Rolo’s is a pandemic-age establishment), we hadn’t yet been when we reached out to speak with Rafiq and Ben. We’d heard about it the way you hear about any truly good restaurant, by word of mouth from colleagues and chefs we know and trust. And boom! We were hit with the pre-first-try restaurant butterflies that feel increasingly rare in the world of TOP 20 RESTAURANT COUNTDOWNS. Needless to say, every bite was incredible, and Rafiq and Ben were among the most gracious hosts we’ve ever met. Scroll for all the polenta bread bites and 80’s reminiscing you could dream of.
Full name, age, where are you from?
Rafiq Salim 38 years old. I was born in the Netherlands, moved to south Florida when I was 7. Went to college in Boston. Been in NYC on and off since 2007. My mother is Dutch my father is Indonesian/Yemeni.
Benjamin Howell 34 years old. Born and raised in NYC. Manhattan until 9yrs old and then Brooklyn until college. Went to college in DC and then moved back to NYC in 2011.
What is your title and where do you work?
RS: Chef/Owner of Rolo’s
BH: General Manager/Rolo’s
Was food a big part of your upbringing?
RS: Very big part of my life. We ate out very little growing up. Both my parents cooked dinner pretty much every night. Dinner was probably 40% Indonesian 40% Dutch and then 20% wildcard (Italian, Arabic, etc.). My mother was an incredible home cook, her stable of 40-50 dishes were absolutely incredible, and the only thing I truly crave all the time.
BH: My mom was a line cook in NYC in the 80s and, although she left cooking behind soon after I was born, she had a really nice touch as a home cook. We ate very simply at home most of the time but both of my parents had a real love for restaurants. They were also travel agents who focused on Italy for some of my childhood and when I was brought on work trips, my favorite moments were when we got to explore the local restaurants.
What are your earliest memories of dining out?
RS: Pizza Hut in the Netherlands in the late 80s was a fancy restaurant, at least my memory of it was fancy. After that it would have to be TGI Fridays. When we moved to the United States Fridays might have been the greatest place on earth. French Onion Soup, Potato Skins, and Fajitas were family favorites, it was just so American and awesome. But baby back ribs were number one, the fact that they were pork totally got lost in translation. Only to find out months and lots of ribs later that it was in fact pork. We were all raised Muslim and the only part of Islam we actually practiced was not eating pork. It was pretty funny and sad (no more ribs) at the time. I think I eat pork daily now…
BH: Frequently on Friday’s as a kid we used to get takeout from an old school American/Italian restaurant up the street from us in Brooklyn called Casa Rosa that’s unfortunately no longer there. It was run by a charming and morbidly obese old Italian guy and when he passed away, they closed up shop. Till this day, their Chicken Piccata, Broccoli w/ Garlic, Potato Croquettes, Fettuccini Alfredo, Sunday salad & veal chops are my favorite thing and my ultimate comfort food. I try to recreate them at home for special occasions at least once a year. My other major early food memory was going to the original 2nd avenue deli with my grandmother, back when it was on 2nd ave and 10th street, and get a bowl of matzah ball soup w/ half corned beef sandwich combo and go nuts on the free pickles that appeared on the table. She would get the Tongue on Rye sandwich every time which back then, for the life of me, I could not understand the allure of.
If you could give a piece of advice to someone who wanted to pursue your career, what would it be?
RS: Make sure you really want to do this. It is not an easy career. There are plenty of other jobs out there that require less hours, less pressure and pay more money. Having a “passion for food” is not enough. Enjoying cooking is not enough. You must like restaurant work. Long hours, working nights, working weekends, constant time pressure, constant cleaning, constant change, instability, etc.
BH: I echo everything that Rafiq said and would add that, for anyone looking to open a restaurant of their own, think really hard about what you NEED to spend money on to make your place special and deliver a quality product vs. what isn’t. At the end of the day, everything that makes a place more complicated makes it harder to work as a business.
What do you think working in this industry has taught you?
RS: It has forced me to be more organized and cleaner. Neither of those come naturally to me. I had to learn them to progress in this industry.
BH: Everything goes wrong in a restaurant in different ways, large and small, every day and all the time. Things break, servers make mistakes, inexperienced but well-meaning cooks over-season an otherwise perfectly designed dish, you end up late seating reservations despite your best efforts to do otherwise (that table just won’t get up after having paid their check 20 minutes prior!), and on and on. There are so many moving parts and, on top of that, you are dealing in a business where the ultimate goal is to be a place that makes people happy. Making people happy, especially strangers, is a fickle and ephemeral thing and every single person derives joy and pleasure in different ways. In that kind of environment, you just have to cultivate a mindset where you EXPECT things to go wrong and focus more on constantly being ready to fix things and make them better without hesitation, disappointment, or disillusionment. Because if you can’t look at it that way, you’re screwed before you even open the doors.
What's your favorite drink or dish on the menu?
RS: Two Sheet Lasagna Verde Bolognese. It’s a summation of all the cooking experience of the restaurant. Joe the Butcher makes the Bolognese, Yessenia the Pasta Cook make the spinach dough sheets, Taylor our sous chef makes the bechamel, Patric our prep cook grinds the parmesan, Sammy line cook builds the lasagna, and Lauren the Oven cook throws it in our 750 degrees wood fire oven. Almost every department of the kitchen touches it in some way. It’s a lot of work and a real collective effort. It tasting just right means 6-7 people had to execute their part perfectly. When it tastes and looks just right it makes me feel unbelievably proud of the team we built.
BH: Rafiq really nailed that one. For drinks, my favorite is the Martini Italian. When I’m out or even making drinks at home, I always have a hard time deciding between a Negroni and a Martini. So we just made a cocktail that’s kinda both: lemony gin, blanc & dry vermouths, a touch of Aperol and a kiss of Castelvetrano olive brine. It’s got a stupid name (should be pronounced martini I-talian, not Italian martini or Martini Italienne or anything fancy like that) and is the kinda simple focused cocktail that I actually want to drink all the time.
What is your favorite place to go out and eat at and what are you ordering?
RS: Spicy Village, 68 Forsyth St B, New York, NY 10002.
11. Pancake with Pork
7. Spice Scallion Sauce Dumpling
26. Spicy Beef Brisket Hui Mei
A1. Spicy Big Tray Chicken
A6. Garlic Chinese Baby Bok Choy
(It’s a perfect order and my restaurant death row meal)
BH: Lunch at Peter Luger on a weekday followed by an antacid and a nap.
We’re talkin’ shrimp cocktail, a fat wedge salad, a burger with cheese (which is only available at lunch), an order of fries and creamed spinach.
You’re on a desert island, what are the 5 kitchen items you need to run your business?
RS: Like how deep and literal should I take this??? Assuming I’ll have refrigeration or a really big cooler with ice, I could cook a lot of the Rolo’s dishes on a dessert island with these 5 kitchen items.
Steel Grill Grate (to make a grill), I’m going to assuming the island has trees that I can burn for fuel and rocks to prop up the grill grate.
Quart Containers and Pint Containers, have to put finished MEP into something.
Tongs. They get a bad wrap in fine dining, I get it, tongs will destroy a delicate piece of fish. But you just don’t flip a 32 oz Bone in Ribeye on a 700 degree grill with any other tool. Seeing a young idealistic line cook try to flip a big steak with tweezers is insane. Tongs are just heavy duty tweezers.
All Clad Stainless Steel Saucier, just so versatile.
Spoons. Any spoon will do. Can’t stir or serve with any other tool really.
BH: I’ll take Rafiq and 4 of his tools (I’ll drop the pint containers, we can whittle some out of the palm trees) with me to the desert Island and he can do the cooking.
