In the Delridge neighborhood between West Seattle and White Center is where you can find Nacho Mama’s Fry Bread Cafe.
At Nacho Mama’s, owner Debra LeComb dishes out plates of nachos piled high with all the fixings and piping hot, crispy fry bread. Debra launched her restaurant in 2022, proudly serving Native American recipes she grew up enjoying with her family.
Learn more about Nacho Mama’s in this week’s business spotlight Q&A!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What’s your favorite part about the community your business is in & why?
The community has been amazing to me. The White Center Pride team hosted a fundraiser here for my business and the food bank, and we raised a lot of money. And back in April, I had a broken window from vandalism, and my next door neighbor Iris started a GoFundMe and got me a new window. The community has been very supportive, and I love them.”
Why is it important to you and your business that people #SpendLikeItMatters?
I think it’s important to be supportive to the people that are growing. You know, corporates have already made it, and the small businesses are learning and growing and we have to do it together. I have so many people that are coming here and I wanna hand them something for free and they say, ‘Oh, no, no, I want, I want to pay for it,’ because people care.
As a business owner, what’s the strangest or craziest idea you’ve ever tried?
I have a lot of them! Once, we went to Sturgis Motorcycle Rally to sell food. They said the average vendor makes $100,000. Well, it was an epic failure and we lost thousands of dollars. It poured down rain the first three days, so that made the attendance low, and we didn’t sell anything. And at that same time there was a car show right out front of here, there were powwows everywhere, so I could have stayed local and made a lot more money.
What’s something your customers may not know about you or your business?
I actually grew up on Delridge Way, where this restaurant is. It’s where I was raised, and where I raised my kids. My dad was a fixture at the locker room tavern, which is right across the street here, and I used to go skating right there as a little girl. And now here I am, 60 years old in the same block, owning my own business.
What are some of your favorite local businesses and why?
Next door is Cartwheel Vintage, and the owner is a wonderful person. At the end of the street is Nepantla, and they’re wonderful people, just very supportive. And of course Lee’s produce across the street. They’ve been there for over 30 years and are still thriving. I like that- I wanna be just like them.
Anything else you’d like us to know about you and your business?
This has been a roller coaster adventure but I did this all by myself. It literally started with $5,000 and $10,000 in credit, that’s all I had, and this place was completely trashed when I got it. I worked for seven months to fix it up, all by myself, night and day, while working two jobs.