Bob Quintana is a north Denver native who made it good farther north.

He founded Li'l Nick's Pizza, a mainstay for 30 years at 5016 Kipling St. in Arvada.

Bob wasn't born in a kitchen but was brought up in one.

"Every time we had a family gathering, I'd end up in the kitchen, watching the women prepare food," he said.

When he was around 8, he started hanging around a cafe, watching the cook prepare Rockybilt hamburgers.

"He'd take a ball of meat, throw it on a marble slab and flatten it with a spatula until it was 6 inches around," Bob said. "Then he'd throw it on the grill. Before my eyes, it shrunk to about 21/2 inches, just right for the bun. It was amazing what control he had over the spatula."

He had his first taste of pizza from neighbors, the Marone family. Bob's sister, Marguerite, would bring home pizza for the family. Soon, the family was making its own.

At 15, Bob took a job as a busboy at Pagliacci's in north Denver. He lost interest in studies at Mount Carmel Catholic High School.

"He wasn't going to school like he should have," said his brother, Frank. "He was hanging out at Carl's Pizzeria, learning how to make pizza."

When he was 17, pizzeria owner Carl DiGiacomo offered Bob a job washing dishes. He worked six nights a week at $10 a shift. "I still work six days a week," he said.

Then DiGiacomo taught him how to be a short-order cook.

"He taught me a lot of things, like how to shoot craps and stay out of trouble," Bob said, according to the Li'l Nick's Pizza Web site. Then he moved on, cooking for the old Yum Yum Tree.

Bob met the former Paula Jones, who was working the counter at the Yum Yum. One thing led to another and they got married in 1973.

Bob wanted a place of his own for years. "My dad had a plan before he started," said son, Nick, a firefighter for whom the restaurant is named. "He bought the equipment and put it in storage."

Paula checked newspaper classified ads for months before she found a restaurant advertised at the place where Li'l Nicks is now.

"The owner didn't have a very good reputation," Bob said. "When I opened, I made about $30 a day. Then people started calling, asking who the owner was. I told them I was. And they started coming in."

At first, he served sandwiches and pizza, still signature fare. He added spaghetti and homemade minestrone.

"People kept asking me if I knew of any good Mexican restaurants," he said. So he developed a Mexican fare that's a big part of the menu.

You watch Bob watching people in his restaurant and he gets as much a kick out of their expressions as he does in cooking the food.

Even though he didn't graduate from Mount Carmel, he still gets invited to class reunions, and attends them.

"I wonder if it's to fill a seat. We had a very small class," he said. "I tell them I have no class."

Bob is 68 but isn't thinking of retiring. "I'm having too much fun," he said. "I don't want to wither up and blow away."

massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271