Family Puts Its Hopes, Dreams Into Third Restaurant
The OK, Mr. Pancho Cafe is a small storefront restaurant that opened a month ago in the spot near the Albertsons location on St. Francis Drive that formerly housed the Blueberry Cafe. It is unassuming and modestly decorated, unless its patrons know the Perales family well enough to see the invisible garlands of hopes and dreams decorating the place.
This is the third OK, Mr. Pancho the family members have opened, and the one they are pinning their wishes on.
An undying dream
Even before Francisco and Norma Perales came to this country 28 years ago, he was dreaming of owning a restaurant some day. And he knew just what he’d call it.
“There was a comic Mexican movie in which this guy came up to this lady in the market and told her to come with him and she said, ‘OK, Mr. Pancho!’ and I thought right then, if I ever had a restaurant, I would call it OK, Mr. Pancho,” Perales said. Pancho, you see, is the common nickname for the name Francisco. Perales has been called Pancho all his life.
In 1980, though, the newly arrived couple and their increasing family were hanging onto the ragged end of the rope ladder of success.
“We worked all the time,” Perales said. “I was a server, and Norma was a line cook. Sometimes, we’d work in two or three places at once, going from the day shift at one hotel to the evening shift at the next place.”
Pancho had a tactic, though, even then. It was his policy to work only in the best restaurants and hotels, soaking up knowledge, as well as tips. So he worked at Pasqual’s (“one of the best”) and Tecolote (“a very famous restaurant”) and the Hilton and Eldorado, among others.
The four Perales children knew they had to pitch in, too. They kept the house running and did odd jobs where they could. One Christmas, Pancho put the whole family to work where he was working
“I was working at the Inn at Loretto, and the wait staff all wanted off, but they had a banquet scheduled. I told the supervisor, ‘Don’t worry; I’ll bring in my family. We can do it.’ ’’
The manager undoubtedly anticipated a wife and maybe a few grown cousins. He was somewhat taken aback when his one-night-only helpers turned out to be barely as tall as the tables, but it took him only a few minutes to adjust, Perales said.
“He told me, ‘Those kids can work!’ And he was right,” the proud father recalled.
Sandra, the only daughter, has a slightly less glowing memory of that night 22 years ago.
“I spilled some water when I was pouring it for the governor,” she said, still wincing. “I was so embarrassed! But the governor — it was Toney Anaya — just smiled and said it was all right.”
Always working
Everybody in the family has always been on board for income-producing efforts, especially when it involved food, Sandra said. Her mother, Norma, is one of those divine cooks who can manage anything, and Sandra inherited Norma’s love of a clean kitchen and excellent food. At one point, mother and daughter would come home from their day (or evening) jobs and make tamales to sell wholesale or at work sites.
Then Pancho found a small used truck that they parked next to Club Alegría on weekend nights to sell gorditas and tamales — that little truck was the first OK, Mr. Pancho. Sons Julio, Victor and Alex helped with that project. It was successful until the club sold and new management discouraged the food sales.
After 15 years in Santa Fe, Perales wanted to be closer to his ailing mother, who lives in Roswell. He convinced himself that Roswell would be the place to open a permanent OK, Mr. Pancho.
Bad idea. Despite a glowing review in the Roswell Daily Record, the restaurant lasted less than a year — desolate months that chewed up all the family’s capital.
“I lost my fortune in Roswell,” Perales said somberly. “I lost my house and all the money I had saved up. People there don’t have the knowledge of food as people in Santa Fe have. They couldn’t appreciate the food.”
The Perales family members retreated to Santa Fe and started working, and saving, again. It’s taken them 13 years, but this time they’re expecting OK, Mr. Pancho Cafe to find a permanent niche in Santa Fe’s tough restaurant market.
One more try
It was Sandra Perales who found the location. Her father was in Roswell, tending to his mom, when she called and told him about it. Sandra handled the lease negotiations, and after a month spent cleaning and painting, the restaurant opened in early May.
It’s small but tranquil. The cheerfully colored restaurant is decorated with Mexican paintings, historic photos and a happy “bienvenidos” mural done by the multitalented Norma. Austere but comfortable Mexican tables and chairs were bought through a supplier in California.
“They have these beautiful, beautiful tables and chairs with lots of decoration,” Pancho said wistfully, “but, you know (he rubbed thumb and finger together), we can’t be spending money on things like that. We started this cafe on very little money.”
Norma had no compunctions about using the family’s savings for one more try at the restaurant business. The chef has the worldwide small-business mantra at her tongue’s tip: “It’s always better to work for yourself,” Norma said in Spanish.
The whole family helps out — the three sons and son-inlaw Pedro Zambrano come in on days off and after their day jobs have ended to help. Even the eldest grandson, Efrain, works there.
“The family that runs a restaurant together succeeds,” is Pancho’s grinning assessment. His optimism appears, finally, to be justified. “They say it takes six months to know if a restaurant’s going to make it, but we have had people coming in from the moment we opened the doors.”
Perales thinks there are two reasons for that.
“We’ve been here a long time now. There are a lot of people who know us,” he said.
And what people know is that Norma’s food is very good. After nearly three decades in Santa Fe restaurant kitchens, she can cook just about anything. The extensive menu includes pancakes, Caesar salads, pork chops and grilled salmon. But the specialties of the kitchen are Mexican.
Santa Fe diners appreciate the complexities of Mexico’s cuisine, with its regional variations and its fusion of native and European, Perales said.
“It’s like the accordion,” he said. “It’s from, I think, Germany, but Mexican musicians have made it a Mexican instrument.”
Customers’ favorites are Norma’s chiles rellenos, from Sonora by way of New Mexico; her chicken and pork mole plates, referencing the state of Puebla, and the fat little gorditas from their native state of Chihuahua. Everything, she said, is made fresh.
“None of that frozen stuff,” her husband translated. Guacamole is fresh avocados mashed with “a little, little garlic, onion, tomato and lime and maybe a tiny bit of cilantro.”
This time, Perales said, he intends to run as a tight a ship as possible to make the third incarnation of OK, Mr. Pancho last.
“We want this to be a legacy for our children,” he said. “What my kids have learned from watching us work and struggle is that opportunities are hard to get,” he said. “When you get another chance, you need to take it — and keep it.”
If you go
WHAT: OK, Mr. Pancho
FOOD: American & Mexican by chef Norma Perales
WHERE: 3005-1F S. St. Francis (next to Albertsons in the Plaza Entrada shopping center)
HOURS: Open daily 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
CONTACT: 988-2630
