How It All Started

Robert Spence

Award-winning chef and entrepreneur, has a heart for cooking various cuisines that make the soul smile and the mouth water. 

Cooking and entrepreneurial genes were transferred to Spence (affectionately known as “Big Time”) from his two grandmothers. At an early age, he regularly helped his paternal grandmother prepare dinners for their family church in St. Louis, Missouri. Although he never met his maternal grandmother who was a popular cook, bakery owner, and seamstress in Somerville, Tennessee, he attributes his keen attention to detail and business savvy to her. Growing up, he enjoyed hearing his family’s warm stories of her adventures down south, especially the juke joint she ran which was frequented by several well-known musicians, like BB King and Isaac Hayes. 

Professionally, Spence was part of a young male leadership group at Mathews-Dickey Boys & Girls Club in St. Louis where he first tried his hand at cooking for local fundraisers and community outings in the area. He did a 4-year internship at Oakland Park Inn (now known as Holiday Inn St. Louis Airport Oakland Park) where he worked under the tutelage of renowned chef, William Jones. There, he gained a wealth of hands-on experience, learned how to prep food and primarily worked in the dish room. 

During Spence’s freshman year of high school at West County Technical School he landed a summer job at the Adams Mark Hotel (now Hotel Regency Downtown) where he was involved with catering banquets that held 25-300 people each night. He also worked in kitchens at the Marriott Maryville, Hilton Airport and Pizza Hut. 

Learned the intricacies

Spence met and worked closely with many influential people as he learned the intricacies of the culinary arts profession and remains indebted to several renowned chefs who took him under his wing, including Gordan Phillips, Robert Schultz, Mark Philips, Carl Bozebo, Robert Foley, and Carey Wise. He also thanks the Bommarito family for helping open doors for him during his early days as a chef-in-training. 

The journey as a professional culinary arts enthusiast continued to manifest. After graduating from high school, Spence enrolled in Forest Park Community College’s culinary arts program and was subsequently involved in a management training initiative at the Marriot Pavilion Hotel (now Hilton Ballpark). The hotel was known for its premiere breakfast buffets by St. Louis locals, tourists, and baseball teams across the country. 

While working at the Marriott Pavilion, Spence met Jonathan Williams, the executive chef for the St. Louis Rams (now the Los Angeles Rams), at a food show he attended in the convention center. Weeks later, Williams offered him a job as his assistant. Under Williams’ supervision, Spence broadened his cooking palette in a kitchen that was operated by the Levy Brothers who oversaw kitchen in major ballparks throughout the U.S. and NASCAR. 

Additionally, Spence competed in state and local competitions, earned a certificate from the American Culinary Federation (ACF) and became a member of the Chef De Cuisine (a local chapter org of ACF) which he’s still affiliated with today.

Aspiration

After working for Williams, Spence returned to Mathews-Dickey to teach and wrote the curriculum for their cooking basics courses.  He was asked by the baseball and football coaching team to cater a fundraiser, and when doing so, created his own rub and sauce. In exchange, Mathews-Dickey supported a fundraising event in support of Spence’s business aspirations. 

Spence began selling BBQ out of his home on the weekends. He cooked for his immediate family and his church family, addition to a range of clients, including AT&T, Ford, Blue Cross, US Bank, MD Club, Pepsi, Barnes BJC, St Louis University, US Bank, and several small business. His food created a buzz across town, so he began distributing to Mom-and-Pop stores. Although he experienced some discriminatory challenges with his initial distributor, Spence eventually fulfilled his dream of finding a realtor to look for a building to set up his own restaurant. He chose the name Café Brown Stone for the business, which would focus on offering a fusion of Creole, Asian and Southern-style dishes.

During property renovation, Spence sold BBQ on the parking lot on the weekends. He eventually shortened his restaurant’s name to CBS, and its official opening in 2010 led him to cook for several celebrities, the 2011 Budweiser SuperFest in St. Louis, Super Jam (Radio One), the government center, churches, golf courses, and St. Louis Community College.

CBS started as a BBQ dive and expanded with soul food only on Sunday. However, the demand for soul food became so high that Spence decided to offer it every day along with his BBQ. 

The menu consisted of BBQ ribs, rib tips, half chicken, beef and turkey polish, pig snoots, baked turkey wings, roast brisket, baked chicken, brisket meat loaf, fried chicken, smother chicken, fried and smothered pork steaks. Famous sides were yams, greens, dressing, mac and cheese, black eyed peas, Cajun style okra, fried corn, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, potato salad, cole slaw, fried rice (special), buttermilk cornbread (sometimes biscuits and/or yeast rolls), oxtails, beef short ribs, roasted duck, Cornish hen, lasagna, chicken and dumplings, pinto beans, and white northern beans, cucumber and tomato salad w/ relish (in the summer), and house made pickles, Robert’s Tea (aka “Crack Tea”) and Ginger Lemonade. 

To top it off, Spence’s featured desserts included peach cobbler, apple cobbler, pear cobbler, and fruit cobbler (a mix of fruits), cranberry sauce, pound cake, 7-up cake, rum cake, caramel cake, chocolate cake, red velvet cake, oreo cookie cake, strawberry cake, pineapple coconut cake, creole bread pudding with whiskey sauce, banana pudding, strawberry pound cake and brown sugar pecan pound cake. 

In addition to BBQ and Soul Food, CBS implement Fish Fridays and then Seafood Fridays, which featured catfish, tilapia, Jack Salmon, salmon, po’ boy sandwiches (fried, baked or blackened), crab legs, potatoes, eggs, garlic toast, garlic parmesan fries, and Robert’s sauce as a dipping sauce. 

Restaurants in the area opened and closed, but Spence was determined to make it, come hell or high water! 

Nice to meet you