Pecos Pit Beckons; The Crowd Follows

SOUTH OF KINGDOME

It's just after 11 a.m. on a chilly, wet Tuesday, but the lunch line at Pecos Pit Bar-B-Que, already 20 people strong, curls away from the overhang and into the rain. No one complains. What's a little of the wet stuff, when a Pecos Pork sandwich is just around the corner?

Debra Wise flashes a wide smile at each customer who comes to the window to order. Behind her, husband Ron, a rotund centrifugal force spinning out sandwiches, whirls from hot oven to hot sauce to hot bread.

Three hundred-fifty sandwiches on a typical day, which may not seem like many, except for two facts: Pecos Pit is open only four hours a day, four days a week, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. And, Ron and Debra Wise are the only two employees.

As Ron Wise likes to say: "We started out with two employees, and after 11 years of great success, we're all the way up to two employees."

Pecos Pit is not the typical success story, and Ron and Debra Wise aren't the typical grow-'til-you-drop entrepreneurs. In fact, Ron and Debra Wise don't want to expand. They would rather contract.

"We used to run five days a week most of the year and cut back to four days in the winter," said Ron. "About six years ago, we decided to try going four days in the spring, and we just continued it."

Ron and Debra don't like to reveal sales and profit numbers, but Ron suggests annual revenue is more than $300,000. He says he and his wife could retire now, if they wanted to. Ron is 49 years old; Debra is younger but doesn't want to say how much younger.

Ron and Debra have built a successful business with a limited menu, an unlikely location and constricted hours. For another restaurant, the combination might be a formula for certain failure; for Pecos Pit, at 2260 First Ave. South, it works.

"I'm from Tacoma, and I get here whenever I come to Seattle," said one patron, who estimates he has to wait 15 minutes for his food. "There's nothing like this in Tacoma."

Ben Johnson is munching a Pecos sandwich for the first time. He considers himself an aficionado of barbecue, and he rates Pecos Pit at 8.5 on a scale of 1 to 10. "It isn't the best I've ever had, but it's the best in Seattle," says Johnson, wiping a stray bit of sauce from his chin.

The lines are what convince Ron and Debra they must be doing something right.

"They come from Leavenworth, Olympia, you name it," says Debra. "Blue-collar, white- collar, kids, adults - it seems everyone likes us."

But success hasn't changed Ron and Debra. On the days they work, they work hard: 10-hour days; 35-hour weeks. When the window is open, the two are in nonstop motion.

"People have asked us, why we don't stay open later, why we don't expand," said Ron. "The reason is, we like it just the way it is. You've heard of the Peter Principle; well, we're not anxious to find the point where we keep moving up until we fail."

Ron and Debra, devout Christians, credit their success to God. But even Ron acknowledges that their own hard work has a role:

"God parted the Red Sea for Moses, but Moses had to walk through it. We've worked hard to make a success of what God made possible," said Ron.