About Us

Fajita Pete’s the name and this is the story of Classic Hickory and Pete’s Mesquite seasoning. I was raised on a ranch out in West Texas and while not poor, one could say I was economically challenged. When that’s the case, you learn to eat cheap. Back in those days fajita meat, or as we called it, skirt steak, was about as cheap a piece of meat as you could buy. Grilling it at least added some flavor, but real flavor takes spices.

It started in the kitchen. That’s where the marinade I used for my fajitas was made. The fajitas were always a big success with friends and family so after hearing that I should market my marinade for the hundredth time, I decided I needed to formalize the recipe. It normally changed every week since I used a lot of what was left in the spice rack.

So the next time I prepared fajitas I kept paper and pen at hand, and when I threw something into the mix I threw the same amount into a container to weigh and record. For me, cooking is like a semi-controlled experiment, I knew where I wanted to go, but getting there can take a while.

That was late summer 1980. I decided I would package up some of my soon-to-be-world-famous fajita marinade mix and distribute it to friends and family as a Christmas gift. So I set out to do what was necessary to get it in jars.

Since the basic recipe was put to paper all I needed to locate was a source of bottles, spices, and labels. At first the labels were fairly easy, I worked with a printer that I knew from my days in the Marine Corps and he got me labels, not cheap, but labels nonetheless. The price break was at the 100K count and I wanted only a thousand. The labels I would get would cost me almost 50 cents each.

Bottles were a real problem, this was 1980, and the internet as we know it today didn’t exist. I was using the yellow pages to locate sources of bottles or jars and was finding the same issue, buy a thousand and pay through the nose. Only real break comes when you purchased a truck load.

Not being too discouraged I was looking for a spice supplier and located a retail spice shop in the Dallas area. This place occupied a small 400 square foot store front. What wonderful smells greeted me when I first stepped foot in that place. They had most of my ingredients and acknowledged the fact they could order in the rest. I made some comment that this was a mile stone for me and if I could only find bottles I would be set.

Bottles? We have bottles. These magic words from Glendy, one of the owners, were the best thing I had heard all week. This led to a discussion of what I wanted to do. Find a blender! Glendy’s company did that also. Talk about one stop shopping, almost everything I needed was in one location. Glendy provided feedback on the label requirements and helped us acquire an UPC code and has been a mentor for us ever since.

The Classic Hickory was the first mixture produced. It was followed by Pete’s Mesquite a few years later. Marketing remained a challenge and the product was distributed by direct sales and word of mouth. Growth was slow but steady, but production ceased when I was busy during the first Gulf War. Since we still receive requests for the product, it was decided I needed to bring the products back to the market place. Western One Step has returned to service their valued customers. Look here often for additional products as there are several in the development stages set for release in 2010.

And to make the marinade, I rub the skirt steak with the product then add 2 or 3 cups of liquid, and a couple tablespoons of which ever Western One Step seasoning I’m using that day. Let the meat sit in the marinade for 4 -24 hours and then grill.