Residents Ask 'Illegal Pete's' to Change Name (+video)

Three weeks shy of opening his newest Illegal Pete’s in Old Town Fort Collins, restaurant owner Pete Turner came to Fort Collins on Wednesday to listen to a crowd of concerned residents who asked that he change his business’ name.

The Boulder-based restaurant with six locations in Boulder and Denver is modeled after Mexican food from San Francisco’s Mission District, specifically over-sized burritos. The name Illegal Pete’s, Turner said, is a literary reference to a bar in a novel he read as an English major in Boulder. “Pete” also refers to his own name and his father’s. When he started the restaurant in 1995, Turner hoped the name would be ambiguous enough to spark people’s interest, perhaps referring to counterculture activity.

But on Wednesday, 30 or so community members explained the negative context of the word illegal, or the “I-word,” as some referred to it, and its importance, down to its use as the name of a restaurant.

“Since I know the context, and I have been labeled with (the word illegal), it makes a huge difference to me,” said Lucy Gonzalez, 25.

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