Last Updated on November 9, 2021
Whenever your Florida road trip travels take you to South Florida or the Keys, make sure to put Robert is Here in Homestead on your itinerary. The 63-year-old fruit and vegetable stand is famous for its incredible selection of delicious and unusual produce, plus remarkable milkshakes. However, the history behind this place is equally unforgettable.
Your trip to Key West should include a pit stop at Robert is Here where you can do a little shopping, savor the flavors of an exotic fruit milkshake, and check out this great shop.
Robert wrote a book that wasn’t a book full of recipes. It was written by South Florida historian Cesar Becerra and digs deep into the soul of this Authentic Florida institution and the family behind it.
History of Robert is Here
The behind-the-scenes journey of Robert and Tracy Moehling and their family goes much more in-depth than what many initially knew about the six-year-old kid who tried to sell his family’s extra cucumbers at a roadside table that went unnoticed until he put up a sign that read “Robert is Here.”
Becerra recorded and siphoned 200 hours of interviews and many never-before-seen photos for his book. The book is a real page-turner. Following the journey of this family for over six decades was not only inspiring but also a great lesson in perseverance.
Books and Books in Coral Gables, did a book release party in 2015. They also put together a few excerpts from the book written by Cesar A. Becerra.
There are hundreds of historical facts throughout the book Robert Is Here: Looking East for a Lifetime that the public will learn (most for the first time). Book and Books nailed the top ten facts from the book which we have posted below.
TOP TEN ROBERT IS HERE FACTS:
1. NEXT FLIGHT…SOUTH DADE:
Before the Moehling Family moved to South Dade, they owned and subsequently sold farmland that would one day become Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
2. ROBERT SHIPS NATIONWIDE. EVEN TO ALASKA
Robert Is Here ships all around the nation and one particular customer enjoys buying and consuming hundreds of pounds (13 pounds per week in the summer) of tropical fruit from her home in Alaska, 5,216 miles away from Robert’s fruit stand.
3. CAN’T-MISS THE (NEW) SIGN
The latest iconic 3-d sign (there have been five main signs) which is installed at an 8% angle and is made up of 3-foot tall metal letters is no slick marketing ploy but the insistence from the Moehling’s roofer who would not redo the roof if Robert was going to paint all over his work.
4. SAME NAME, DIFFERENT SIGNS
Over the years there have been 5 main Robert Is Here signs. After the historic hand spray painted (in cursive) sign that Robert’s father spray painted (directly onto two hurricane shutters) a day after nobody stopped to buy cucumbers from a six-year-old Robert, the sign has been featured as hanging letters from a string, painted straight onto the roof, alongside the overhang and on other four by eight-foot ply-wood boards.
5. JAY LENO OWNS THE OTHER ONE
The Moehling family owns (aside from nearly two dozen antique tractors and trucks) one of only two working 1913 Briggs Detroiter automobiles (the other is owned by Jay Leno).
6. HOW THE ANIMAL FARM BEGAN
The petting zoo area started as a fluke in the form of a promise made to a friend of Robert who needed a temporary space to house a few dozen of his prize tortoises on the fruit stand’s property including the largest and oldest of all Galapagos tortoises. The giant tortoise, aptly named “Centurion” was said by experts to be approximately 130 years old.
7. “SHAKE-ING” NEW RECORDS.
The typical blender at Robert Is Here Ice Cream shake shop does more than double duty as to the regular rated maximum hours used in a day the manufacturer recommends. The fruit stand started with just one blender in 1984. It now boasts no less than 12 with nearly a dozen employees handling that business alone. In fact, the stand produced and sold 1,800 shakes and smoothies in one day.
This is the only way to calculate daily visitation numbers. The family and Becerra guestimate can balloon to nearly three to five thousand (3,000 to 5,000) a day in the high visitation winter season. If you consider some of those shakes bought translate to one, two or more people pulling up to the stand per purchase, per car.
8. HURRICANE PROOF
After Hurricane Andrew knocked nearly 10,000 trees throughout seventy acres of Roberts tropical fruit groves. Robert re-trenched (literally and figuratively) by carefully cross-hatching deep dug trench rows for future tropical trees. He planted this way so that their root systems would be deeply inset and not topple.
9. JAR-RING FACT
There is one employee (of the nearing 60 part-time and full time) that works at Robert Is Here. Their only job is to stock, re-stock, tweak, and turn all jars so that the labels face the public. They make sure that all 3,000 jars stand as straight as soldiers all day long.
10. FUTURE FRUIT-MAGNATE
Grandson Jackson Moehling once built a mini fruit stand for a class project. When asked why he didn’t name the stand “Jackson Is Here” the 6-year-old first-grader perplexed and exasperated retorted…” now why would I do that, everybody knows Robert Is Here, I would be crazy to name it anything else!”
If you’re in the Homestead area, you can stop by Robert is Here and purchase this book. Robert will be happy to sign it for you … and so will his adult son, Little Robert.
If you’re not in the area, order this book online, on the Robert is Here website. In fact, you can order a lot of great stuff at Robert is Here online.
Looking for other things to do in this part of the Sunshine State? Check out:
- Exploring the Extraordinary Florida Everglades
- Knaus Berry Farm in Homestead is Home to Florida’s Best Cinnamon Rolls
- Adventures in Awesome, Authentic Miami
- Experience Miami’s Coral Gables Like a Local
- Nothing Beats Fantastic Florida Farmers Markets
- An Authentic Florida Upper Keys Road Trip (Key Largo)
- Mango Mania! An Authentic Florida Road Trip