Pete’s History
The story of an English-style fish and chips joint flourishing in the Arizona desert actually began in the island jungles of the South Pacific. That's where Peter McLane Grant Jr., a native of Indianapolis, school teacher, coach, former collegiate and NCAA basketball player, (Housiers), international golf champion and a World War II, PT Boat Skipper, (#66), contracted malaria, dysentery, and rheumatic fever.
After receiving a military medical discharge, doctors back home in Indiana told him he would never fully recover unless he moved to a hot, dry, climate. Someplace like Egypt or maybe Arizona. "Hell, I can't speak Egyptian," Grant said, so he looked up Arizona on the map. On Christmas day 1946, Grant and his pregnant wife Ruth hooked up a house trailer to their car, packed all their belongings including his golf clubs and with only $900 cash in his pocket moved to Phoenix, Arizona, anticipating a prospective job, teaching history and shop at a Phoenix elementary school. He never showed up for work. Instead he poured his money into a dream he had since seeing fish and chips stores throughout Europe during the war. Grant rented a small piece of land from a friend who owned a golf driving range for $20 a month near 31st and Van Buren. He built a 6' x 8' wooden shack with no running water. On March 23rd 1947, Grant opened the first "Chip House" with some used restaurant equipment, a couple boxes of filets, a bag of potatoes, and a rack of bottled soda pop. He always said he knew Pete's would be huge because the first day he made $12 profit." Thirty-five cents would get you a one-piece fish & chips a quarter would buy two burgers, five cents for a soda. But you had to leave the empty bottle.
By the end of that first year he opened 3 stores. Over the next four decades Grant showed an uncanny knack for opening stores that proved successful. He favored neighborhoods where there were lots of small houses with families and lots of kids. Pete's favorite saying was, "Pete's Fish & Chips is the Biltmore for the common man."
Pete's four daughters began to work in his restaurants as soon as they knew how to peel potatoes. By the time they were teenagers he had 8 successful locations. He had always planned to leave his daughters his Empire, but an unforeseen tragedy took him all too quickly in December of 1987, at the hands of a killer. Pete Grant, age 72, CEO of Pete's Fish & Chips, was found shot to death in his East Phoenix apartment. A $30,000 coin collection was taken. After 6 weeks of no leads, Pete's daughters got a national trade magazine to write an article about the murder and stolen coins. A former Phoenix private investigator tried to sell several of Grant's "Pete's Fish & Chips" commemorative coins to a coin dealer in Scottsdale. The coin dealer, who had read the article, contacted police about the attempted sale of these coins. He certainly was interested in the $10,000 dollar reward that the daughters had offered the Silent Witness Program for information about the stolen coins. The murderer was arrested and soon convicted of murder in 1988 and was sentenced to life in Arizona's Florence Prison. He died in prison in 2001.
The murder of their father pushed Pete's two daughters Kathy Adams and Pat Foster to the head of the company. Their other two sisters Ginnie and Babs already were busy running their own businesses. The girls decided to change nothing and stay true to their father's philosophy; they refused to expand beyond the 8 family-owned stores. Pete's Fish & Chips has been a household name since 1947, generation upon generation still enjoy that pleasant mouth-watering taste and smell that penetrates the whole atmosphere and makes everyone hungry for fried fish.
Over 77 years of delicious, prompt fast food, and friendly customer service keeps fifth generation customers coming back. Pete Grants motto was and is, "Pete's sells three things, price, quality, and service." Home of the one and only, "Monster Burger," Pete named after his four daughters whom he called his "little monsters," and here you'll find their infamous "Pete's Special Sauce," it's a secret, don't bother asking for the recipe.
So the tradition of Pete's continues, currently three of his 12 grandchildren are working as managers at Pete's Fish & Chips. Also, two of Pete's great grand-children are working at Pete’s Fish & Chips, Pete’s daughters carry on his dream without expansion, high prices and with little promotion or advertising. The food and the sauce sell itself. Dad always said word of mouth is the best kind of advertising. If your customers are happy they'll tell their friends.
Pete Grant truly represented the American entrepreneurial spirit. He honorably served in the military during the war and then with very little money but a lot of determination built a successful family business while raising a family of four girls. Pete is proof that with hard work and a vision your dream can come true.
