In This Tribute
- A Member of the Classic Bike Experience Guild
- A Lifelong Connection to Motorcycles
- A Major Figure in Vermont Hospitality
- A Builder, Mentor and Community-Minded Friend
- Read More About Robert’s Life
- Join the Memorial Ride on July 25
The Classic Bike Experience community recently lost another one of its own. Robert Fuller, a member of the Classic Bike Experience Guild, died at his home in Lincoln on February 16 following five and a half years of treatment for prostate cancer. He was 79. Here is with the late Nick Woodbury, sorting out a problem
Robert was known throughout Vermont as a pioneering restaurateur, mentor, craftsman and community builder. Within the CBE Guild, however, he was also known as a fellow rider whose lifelong relationship with motorcycles connected him naturally to the people and machines gathered around the shop.
On Saturday, July 25, CBE members and friends will ride together from Essex Junction to Robert’s celebration of life at the Old Lantern Inn in Charlotte.
A Member of the Classic Bike Experience Guild
Robert belonged to the Classic Bike Experience Guild, the community of riders, collectors, restorers and enthusiasts that has grown around the shop. Like many Guild members, his interest in motorcycles extended far beyond simply owning and riding them. He appreciated their history, their mechanical character and the skills required to keep an older machine alive.
Robert’s curiosity and willingness to learn made him a natural fit within the Guild. He enjoyed working with his hands and devoted part of his retirement to restoring antique motorcycles. He taught himself new skills, including welding, and approached a mechanical challenge with the same determination he had brought to his restaurants and other projects throughout his life.
His membership also reflected what the CBE Guild is ultimately about: the friendships that develop around a shared interest. Motorcycles may bring people through the door, but the conversations, accumulated knowledge and willingness to help one another are what turn a shop into a community.
A Lifelong Connection to Motorcycles
Robert’s relationship with motorcycles began during childhood. He rode behind his father, Douglas Fuller, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1959, shortly before Robert’s 13th birthday.
The loss became inseparable from Robert’s lifelong passion for riding. According to a recent profile in Seven Days, when Robert purchased his first motorcycle at about 19, the sound of a motorcycle returning to the family carried deep emotional significance. He later assembled a notable collection of antique motorcycles that included the same German model his father had ridden.
A cross-country motorcycle trip during the Summer of Love in 1967 also helped set the direction for Robert’s professional life. When he and a friend returned home without enough money to pay a 35-cent highway toll, Robert resolved to develop a skill that would allow him to find work wherever he traveled. That resolution eventually led him into the restaurant business.
Motorcycles remained part of his life through the decades that followed. He restored them, traveled with fellow riders and rode on racetracks around the country. Even after a serious track accident left him with significant injuries, he eventually returned to riding.
A Major Figure in Vermont Hospitality
Beyond the motorcycle community, Robert was widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in Vermont’s restaurant industry.
During a career spanning approximately 40 years, he helped develop Pauline’s Café in South Burlington and Leunig’s Bistro in Burlington into local dining landmarks. He was also instrumental in launching the Bobcat Café & Brewery in Bristol and participated in several other restaurant ventures.
Robert took every part of the restaurant business seriously. He paid attention to details, treated customers as guests and believed that a welcoming dining room offered something that could not be recreated simply by cooking good food at home.
He also helped others build careers and become restaurant owners themselves. Rather than merely selling businesses to the highest bidder, Robert sometimes created pathways through which former employees could assume ownership. His influence led Vermont Coffee Company founder Paul Ralston to describe him as “the godfather of chef-restaurant owners.”
A Builder, Mentor, Author, and Community-Minded Friend
Robert’s interests reached well beyond restaurants and motorcycles. He was a cyclist, skier, traveler, woodworker, photographer and volunteer. He and his wife of 30 years, Alison Parker, traveled extensively, sometimes combining their trips with volunteer work.
Friends and colleagues remembered him as practical, energetic and endlessly curious. He was willing to tackle small jobs, learn unfamiliar skills and help when he saw that something needed to be done.
Even while his health was declining, Robert remained interested in strengthening the community around him. Concerned about the negativity surrounding downtown Burlington, he created a self-funded effort called the Burlington Better Vibe Coalition, now calling itself Building Burlington’s Future. He walked through downtown, introduced himself to business owners and employees, and photographed them as part of a campaign to share a more positive view of the city.
He also completed a long-standing personal goal with the 2025 publication of his memoir, A Horse-Drawn Sickle Bar Cutter: Finding My Road to Felicity. The book chronicled his journey and reflected his belief that determination and hard work could open unexpected roads through life.
Read More About Robert’s Life
Seven Days writer Melissa Pasanen assembled an extensive profile of Robert based on conversations with his family, friends and colleagues. The article provides a fuller picture of his influence on Vermont hospitality, his devotion to motorcycles and the many relationships he developed during his life.
Read “Robert Fuller Was ‘the Godfather of Chef-Restaurant Owners’” in Seven Days.
Join the Memorial Ride on July 25
CBE Guild members and friends are invited to ride together to Robert’s celebration of life on Saturday, July 25.
Meeting place: Classic Bike Experience
Gathering time: 11:30 a.m.
Departure time: Promptly at noon
Destination: Old Lantern Inn, 3260 Greenbush Road, Charlotte
Planned arrival: Before 1 p.m.
Sag is proposing a leisurely route from CBE to River Road, continuing along North Williston Road through Hinesburg and then to Charlotte. The ride should take approximately 40 minutes. Alternate route suggestions are welcome, provided the group can reach the Old Lantern Inn before 1 p.m.
This will be a relaxed memorial ride. There will be no heroics and no reason to arrive soaking wet. An initial weather assessment will be made the night before, followed by a final go/no-go announcement Saturday morning. If there is a significant likelihood of rain, the group ride will be canceled.
Following the memorial, riders will make their own way home.
Please Let Us Know if You’re Riding
Please reply if you plan to join the ride so Sag can develop a rough headcount.
Robert’s life traveled through kitchens, workshops, communities and countless miles of open road. It seems fitting that his friends from Classic Bike Experience will remember him by gathering around the motorcycles he loved and sharing one more Vermont ride in his honor.