PEPE'S NORTH OF THE BORDER.

• Author: MYERS, DEBORAH J.
• Position: Mexican restaurant in Barrow, Alaska - Brief Article

How did you get a bank to finance a Mexican restaurant 300 miles above the Arctic Circle?" Fran Tate paused a long time before she answered.

"How come you have to ask the hard questions first?"

Then the truth spilled out. Tate started Pepe's North of the Border in 1978 by writing hot checks--$11,000 total--but this gamble demonstrates the entrepreneur's confidence in her own success.

"By the time (suppliers) went to cash (the checks), they were covered. When we opened, we were the hottest thing in town. It took just a week to get enough money to cover the checks. Just don't you do it this way!" she says.

Tate did go to 11 banks in Anchorage to get a loan, but ended up funding the venture herself until the funds dried up.

Pepe's started out in a remodeled, abandoned building in Barrow, 504 air miles from Anchorage (no roads connect Barrow). Tate's oil job had dried up, but instead of accepting a position in Anchorage, she wanted to start her own business so she could stay in the little town and in a state of motion.

"They wanted me to go sit behind a desk," she says, seemingly surprised that one would have such a presumption of a woman then in her 50s. Noticing a dearth of eateries, Tate asked people what kind they wanted.

"Everyone kept saying they wanted a Mexican restaurant But I don't cook."

Tate called upon Bob Worthington, the manager of Old Pepe's Mexican Villa where she had once worked (Renton, Wash.) before coming to Alaska. Worthington didn't want to relocate; however, he did send Tate his menu. Tate's first cook was a Mexican who had years of experience. Eventually, the menu expanded to 150 items.

Tate has had good experiences with her employees.

"I don't have to worry about replacements; they find their own. They call their friends and relatives in Mexico and tell them to come work for me."

But Tate's popularity with the residents of Barrow was harder won.

"Everybody thought I was nuts," she recalls. "People in this town wished I would fail. They didn't want to see a woman that aggressive make it. They thought I would fail because I had no money."

Some local repairmen refused to work for her unless she paid them first. "Now, I don't give them work when they call me to see if I have anything for them. They wouldn't help me when times were tough."

Eventually, the local hotel's restaurant went out of business, thanks to Pepe's...