Tacos on the Tundra: The Story of Pepe's North of the Border [Paperback]

Frederic Moras (Author), Lyn Kidder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1996

Biography of eccentric entrepreneur Fran Tate who went 300 miles above the Arctic Circle to open the world's northernmost Mexican restaurant, Pepe's North of the Border.

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: Bonaparte Books; 1st edition (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965482626
• ISBN-13: 978-0965482622
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #881,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Guaranteed to make readers laugh out loud.", February 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tacos on the Tundra: The Story of Pepe's North of the Border (Paperback)

Review appeared August 1997 Alaska Magazine

In 1975 Fran Tate tried to get McDonalds to open a franchise in Barrow, Alaska. The company, however, was interested only in a town with at least 50,000 and Barrow's population was 3,500. So Tate opened her own Mexican restaurant instead. "Tacos on the Tundra" is a lively and sensibly organized biography. It traces Tate's triumph over her lonely and impoverished childhood through sheer hard work. Author Lyn Kidder liberally quotes her subject's colorful, down-home speech. "Don't tell 'em I m a floozy," says Tate, an allusion to five failed marriages. This executive with an engineering degree scrubbed toilets to pay her bills. "People don't want to struggle that much anymore," she said. "They want to be president of the company, second day on the job." Hollywood almost made a sitcom from her life, a few years before the television show "Northern Exposure." She's too unbelievable a character for fiction, but this real-life book is guaranteed to make readers laugh out loud, and at the same time give them an insight into life in America's northernmost city.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Tale of a True Alaska Character, October 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Tacos on the Tundra: The Story of Pepe's North of the Border (Paperback)

Fran Tate has lived a truly amazing and interesting life. This book tells her story in detail, and what a story it is! Fran is a true character, and a really neat lady (I know her) who has worked very hard to build sucessful businesses and provide service to her adopted community. Barrow is a special and different place and Fran fits in well here. Her story is a good example of how hard work, creativity and sheer guts can get you where you want to go. It is also very funny! How can you resist someone who runs a business like Elephant Pot Sewage Haulers (before the town got sewers everyone had holding tanks or "honey buckets" and someone had to "clean up your act" as the slogan went) and sells the T-shirts in her restaurant to boot? Not only that, she does a great jazz show on the local radio station and sponsors (& shoots, with her attorney/pyrotechnician) the New Year's fireworks.

Pepe's North of the Border is a true Barrow experience, and really, the food isn't bad (I've had far worse in the Lower 48). There's always free pie & coffee to local seniors. The cooks are Mexican, too--Fran even wound up marrying one once at least in part to avoid his being deported. If all this sounds interesting, get the book!

5.0 out of 5 stars Alaska pioneer woman, September 5, 2011

By 

D. Steinfort (Eagle River, Alaska) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tacos on the Tundra: The Story of Pepe's North of the Border (Paperback)

Tacos on the Tundra: The Story of Pepe's North of the Border This is an excellent book showing the type of adventurous pioneers who have made Alaska the amazing state that it is. The book is written in a very "chatty" style so that you come away feeling like you really know Fran Tate and all that she has accomplished in a very remote part of Alaska. I was fortunate enough to actually meet this remarkable woman whose perserverence and hard work are extremely inspirational.