Pete’s Fish & Chips, a family-owned chain with eight Valley locations, opened its first restaurant on this date in 1947.
Founder Peter McLane Grant Jr., an Indianapolis native, had moved to Phoenix on Christmas Day 1946 intending to become an elementary school teacher.
Instead, he leased a piece of land near 31st Street and Van Buren for $20 per month, and built a 6-foot-by-8-foot shack with no running water that became the first Pete’s Fish & Chips.
The shack offered fish and chips (one piece and chips for 35 cents) and burgers (two for 25 cents). Its popular “special sauce” recipe remains a closely guarded secret today.
By the end of its first year, Grant had three locations, and over the ensuing years he eventually opened eight.
In 1987, though, the 72-year-old Grant was found shot to death in his east Phoenix apartment, with his $30,000 coin collection missing.
The murderer was arrested and convicted in 1988, and died in prison in 2001.
Since Grant’s death, two of his four daughters have been running the chain, refusing to expand it beyond the eight locations.
