Pepe's North of the Border Mexican Restaurant (Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska) | Mexican cuisine

USA / Alaska / Barrow / Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska
 Mexican cuisine  Add category
 Upload a photo

www.jeffreysward.com/tributes/pnotb.htm

www.alaskajournal.com/stories/100101/foc_pepes.shtml

Pepe's North of the Border restaurant is a Barrow must-visit

Doing business in rural Alaska

By Victoria Zerbe
Journal Copy Editor

BARROW -- Along the remote coast of the Arctic Ocean in a city where the sun does not set for 82 days a year, a rural business thrives and prospers. Fran Tate, owner and operator of Pepe's North Of the Border restaurant in Barrow, has seen her rural business grow from a restaurant housed in a remodeled two-bedroom house with room for 40 patrons to a facility that can seat 234 customers.

The restaurant sees a steady flow of business year round in Barrow, according to the restaurant's founder. "Regular customers eat their meals at the restaurant all the time," said Tate.

"City gatherings are often held at Pepe's," said Jim Vorderstrasse, Barrow's mayor. Vorderstrasse describes Tate as "a leading first citizen." The northernmost incorporated city on the North American continent has about 4,600 residents.

Pepe's two dining rooms and coffee shop also are open for banquets, community meetings, social gatherings, conferences and dances. Community service organizations are not charged for room rental in the restaurant and usually five to seven meetings are scheduled each month. Tate plans a special event that adds to the list of activities held at the restaurant monthly.

From May 15 to Sept. 15, Tate sees big spurts of business during the afternoon at Pepe's. During the summer season, the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. conducts Tundra Tours for visitors who want to experience the wonders of the Arctic. A stop at the restaurant is a lunch-time option offered to the visitors midway through the tours. Overnight visitors to the Top of the World Hotel, which is owned by ASRC and located adjacent to Pepe's, have even more opportunities to taste the restaurant's fare. Menus are printed in English, Japanese and Braille.

"During the winter, business is steady all day long with oil company executives, vice presidents and workers," said Tate. "Barrow is kind of a hub for the oil industry."

Although no roads lead to Barrow, scheduled passenger and freight flights arrive and depart daily from the Will Rogers/Wiley Post Memorial Airport. According to Tate, Prudhoe Bay is a mere 240 miles away and Kuparuk is even closer at about 185 miles.

Tate, who is remodeling one room now, said, "Future expansion may depend on what happens in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), because I'm stuck and can't get any bigger in my present location."

Tate rents her restaurant space from ASRC, which has headquarters in Barrow. Tate points out, however, that "everything inside is mine."

"You have to keep going, keep active, or you feel you're at a place of cancerous complacency," said Tate when speaking about future plans.

Tate started her Mexican-American restaurant in 1978. Tate originally moved to Barrow to work as an electrical engineer for the Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 both in the field and behind a desk. When the Department of Interior took over the operation, Tate decided she did not want to accept the new direction her job was taking and work in an office all day.

After studying the needs of the city and its one, tiny café, Tate determined that Barrow needed a restaurant. Today Barrow boasts 10 restaurants, according to Vorderstrasse.

Tate recalls how she missed being valedictorian of her high school class because of a grade in home economics but knew she could rely on her experience working her way through college at a Mexican restaurant to bring her business plan into existence.

"After 22 years, I still hate cooking," said Tate, who plans meals, hires staff and orders the groceries but does not cook at the restaurant. Tate orders an average of six to seven pallets of supplies a week for Pepe's. The orders arrive air freight, since a barge arrives only once a year in Barrow, and she lacks warehouse space "to hold that many beans."

Twelve employees work for the northernmost Mexican restaurant year round. "My employees have been with me six to 17 years," said Tate proudly.

Tate's food service business is not confined to the Stevenson Street location. With two vans, Tate brings her catering business to any location in town.

"Everyone knows Fran," Vorderstrasse said. Tate's fame, however, is not limited to Alaska. The Wall Street Journal published an article about the businesswoman and she once appeared on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show."

"Fran is an active community supporter," said Vorderstrasse, who lists among her many contributions delivering Christmas dinner to 200 seniors; tossing 750 toys to children at each spring festival and Fourth of July parade; sponsoring fireworks; witnessing tourists' "polar dips;" and playing Easter bunny. Tate mails approximately 7,500 Christmas cards to visitors each year who have signed her restaurant guest book.

"Fran is the longest volunteer at the public radio station with 21 years," Vorderstrasse said. Tate sponsors and narrates Barrow's "Jazz Below Zero" every Saturday from noon to 2 p.m.

Tate also has other business interests in town. "In January 1977, the water business was nonexistent" in Barrow, she said. Residents could get water delivered only sporadically, or not at all if the driver went out whaling, according to Tate who bought a water truck and within a week had 15 customers.

Tate also supplied a sewage disposal service for residents until the North Slope Borough started to provide the service for free. The businesswoman stills sells water and septic tanks, tank fittings and even "honey buckets."

"If you're living on yesterday's laurels, you ain't done anything today," is one of Tate's favorite quotes and summarizes her philosophy both for her rural business and her life.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   71°17'34"N   156°47'13"W

Comments

  • Do you still sale the Point Barrow sweat shirt? Please E-Mail me your phone number. gfindley@cox.net
  •  1.7 km
  •  93 km
  •  241 km
  •  467 km
  •  505 km
  •  524 km
  •  528 km
  •  540 km
  •  696 km
  •  933 km
This article was last modified 13 years ago