14: Lucy’s Café: A 50 Year Old Family Legacy

In this episode of EPFV, Meredith E. Abaca speaks with Josh and Margo Lepe, owners of Lucy’s Café North. Josh Lepe is the grandson of Lucy Lepe who in 1978 open Lucy’s Café in El Paso Texas. Josh shares that now it is Lucy’s sister who runs this first original Lucy’s Café establishment. In this episode, Josh shares memories of his family’s culinary signature dishes—Machaca with chile con queso and Tacos Antonia, for example--that have fed folks in El Paso, Texas for over 50 years. Currently there are four Lucy’s Café establishments in El Paso, with Lucy’s Café North, being the newest addition and the only one in El Paso’s Northeast. Josh’s speaks of the key ingredient that kept his grandmother in business for years helping her, a single mother from Juarez who crossed the international bridge into El Paso raised seven children on her own: kindness. It is the intention of kindness and the desire to server a community with humility that underscored what Josh’s business model.  As we hear Josh’s and Margo’s speak about their new adventure running Lucy’s Café North, beyond hearing about some iconic border Mexican dishes and family culinary creations, they also speak to the role the family run restaurants play in functioning as community centers.