Nice Kicks: With so many retros, do you find yourself buying every shoe you wanted as a kid?
Roblé Ali: Yeah, either that, or I’ll fall in love with a pair that I never had the chance to get. You know what my favorite pair of Jordans are? The 4s that they just reissued. The plain black and grey ones. Those are dope sneakers. They are mad comfortable, and they go with a lot of different things. They look ill. Those are my favorite J’s, and I wasn’t even around when they first came out.
Nice Kicks: Do you know if any other sneakerheads culinary industy?
Roblé Ali: My Sous Chef Che Gravy is a big sneakerhead. He has like 12 pairs of sneakers at my house that I want him to come get. He has so many pairs of dope sneakers that he just leaves them around. He left some LeBrons over here, and now I’m actually into them. I want a pair now, and I never liked them before. The “Area 72” joints are a dope sneaker. I think I’m about to get those. It’s like they finally got it right in my opinion.
Nice Kicks: Do you wear a lot of signature basketball sneakers?
Roblé Ali: I like the KDs. I probably wouldn’t buy them, but I like them. I hate the Kobes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human on the street wear them. I may have seen one little kid wear them.
Nice Kicks: What are you top 5 shoes of all-time?
Roblé Ali: Number one would be the Air Jordan 4 Black/Red. Second is the Charles Barkley – the original colorway of the Nike Air Force 180, the black with red and white. I need a new pair. The ones I have are dogged out. Then, I would have to jump over to the black and solar red Yeezy 2. The construction and quality are really ill. I want to throw the “Concord” in the top 5, but I’m not going to. If I liked them that much, I would wear them more often. I going to say the other Barkleys, the Air Force Force Max that the Fab Five wore, is my number four. Number five is the Air Jordan 5 in the black and metallic silver colorway.
Nice Kicks: Being such a renowned chef, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask for restaurant recommendations in New York and Houston.
Roblé Ali: You know, in Houston, I love the Pappa chains. Pappasito’s, Pappadeaux, and Pappamia are all good out there. I’ve actually been to a lot of nice restaurants in Austin. I really like Drink.Well. They have great drinks, great food, and they are affordable. They also play good music. It is a great restaurant. If you are ever in New York, definitely hit up Beauty and Essex. Bring a girl. If you bring a girl there on a date, half of your work is already done for you [laughs]. I have to say one in Chicago. I love Chicago. Chicago’s food scene is ridiculous. I’m going in a month, and I’m taking two days off just to eat. There’s a nice restaurant there called Girl and the Goat. The chef won Top Chef. There’s a lot of goat on the menu. You don’t have to eat goat, but they have really good food.
