The Three Sisters and their Restaurant

Three Sisters Tavern & Grill, located at 6695 W. Hwy. 165 in Colorado City, Colorado, is owned and operated by sisters Jamie, Paula, and Darla. Their shared vision drives the mission to establish the finest dining destination south of Pueblo.

With the assistance of manager Ashley Sailors, Three Sisters has found great success in serving the southern Colorado community. While Jamie and Paula call Greenhorn Valley home, Darla splits her time between Texas and Colorado. United by their bond as both sisters and friends, they endeavor to create a welcoming environment reflective of their genuine camaraderie.

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Here is what The Gazette Said

Article: Sisterly love and a taste of home at a country classic

A Tuesday afternoon finds the sisters in their restaurant with flutes of Champagne.

"We're celebrating!" declares Paula Williams. She and Jamie DeVencenty are celebrating nothing in particular - nothing besides being together at their favorite place, which is indeed worth celebrating. They only wish the third sister behind Three Sisters Tavern and Grill were here.

They call Darla Watson the "Texas Tornado," because she lives in Texas and, by her own account, "I'm usually blazing through. We really do it up."

Just as the sisters learned hard work growing up on the family ranch near Pueblo, they learned the importance of a good time. DeVencenty's husband, Rocky, has put it best: "Sisters by blood, best friends by heart."

South of Pueblo today, if one is so curious to meet the three sisters of the wood barn-looking Three Sisters off Interstate 25, and if one so happens to find all three sisters together inside, one is treated to the kind of warm, spirited welcome one only knows from a warm, loving home on the range.

One might find a little fire for warming up inside. Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton or George Strait might be singing softly over the speakers. The staff will be in cowboy hats and Western shirts, matching the local old-timers. The portions will be big. The steak, chicken, burger, green chili and bread pudding will be just right - a taste of home.

Oh yes, Watson wishes she could be here this afternoon. "It's my favorite place," she says on the phone from Texas. "It's family. It really represents that."

There's Granddad's saddle. There's Daddy's guitar on the wall. There are the branding irons and the trophies of a big-prize family. Daddy rode bulls. Momma was Miss Rodeo Colorado. DeVencenty went on to jump horses; now her daughter is winning world titles. But the restaurant isn't trying to show off the family as much as it is trying to hold on to an ideal that the sisters see fading up and down I-25. "Just trying to keep the West alive," DeVencenty says.

Williams is still living it. She married a cowboy, and together they tend to the animals and land not far from the restaurant.

DeVencenty, meanwhile, married a pilot. She and Rocky went on to own and operate a flight-for-life and air charter business along with a fueling service out of the Pueblo airport.

The sisters blame Rocky for the enterprise none of them saw coming about 10 years ago. They loved the nostalgic, little building there in Colorado City, that was all. "The next thing we knew," DeVencenty says, "he was putting up a sign: ‘Three Sisters Restaurant.'" He was getting a liquor license, the story goes, when he got some advice about the flyby location in the countryside: "You're gonna need a lucky penny."

A lucky penny, perhaps. But more so hard work that the sisters knew all too well. At the family farm, there were cattle to feed and others to round up, hay to bale among other chores around the clock. "It doesn't go away," Williams says of that work. "It's seven days a week."

Three Sisters was initially open four days a week before the sisters changed to seven. A lot of money was lost in that hard, first year. But the sisters never thought about quitting.

"It's the same thing with ranching," DeVencenty says. "You just get up the next day." Get up, work hard - and yes, have some fun. The restaurant hosts live music now and then. Those nights recall others from the sisters' upbringing, when the moon hung high over the farm. "My grandma had 10 kids, and every guy who walked in had a guitar," Watson recalls. "We'd all sing together. They'd play the guitar and the piano. ... When I think back on that, it feels kind of surreal." And sometimes today, that's how it feels back at her favorite place.

By Seth Boster seth.boster@gazette.com

Here is what The Chieftain Said

They've always been close so why not open a restaurant together?

Three Sisters Tavern and Grill in Colorado City recently marked its second anniversary under the ownership of Jamie DeVencenty, Paula Williams and Darla Watson.

Separated in age by only a few years, the Pueblo natives -- the Bezona sisters, as the siblings were known growing up -- look back at their decision to open the family-style restaurant as fate. Even as they pursued their own careers and families, "We've always wanted to do something in business together," DeVencenty said.

The opportunity came when the former Los Cuervos restaurant off the Interstate 25 exit in Colorado City closed and was put up for sale.

"We fell absolutely in love with it and decided we'd give it a shot," DeVencenty said.

The restaurant's rustic decor and sweeping view of the mountains reminded them of their childhood visits to their grandparents' ranches, where large groups would gather for their home-cooked meals, she said. Now, they get to offer their respective families -- and the public -- a similar retreat, she said. They didn't alter much of the restaurant's interior; they didn't want to. The biggest change was to put one of their grandfather's saddles on display near the entryway. Said Watson, "It is so amazing to see how many people will just touch that saddle as they walk in."

The food offerings include chicken fried steak, homemade chips and salsa, green chile, sloppers and other down-home fare from breakfast through dinner.

Bread pudding also is on the menu.

"People come for it just to take home. Grandma's recipe," DeVencenty said.

The restaurant also features a full bar and a meeting room.

The venture represents a new business outlet for the sisters.

DeVencenty and her husband, Rocky, run Travelaire flight-for-life and air charter service and the Rocky Mountain Flower fixed-base operator that provides fuel services for aircraft at Pueblo Memorial Airport. Rocky also is active at the restaurant. "He's the fourth sister," DeVencenty quipped. The couple also own a ranch near Rye. Williams and her family operate a ranch about five miles east of Colorado City.

Watson divides her time between Colorado and Texas and also works as a flight coordinator at Rocky Mountain Flower.

The sisters hired "fantastic" personnel in manager Debbie Houghton and head cook Max Howes, DeVencenty said. The sisters also devote long hours of their own time. "We came in cold. We had a lot to learn," she said. Today, her and Williams continue to help out up to four or five days a week; Watson helps when back in the state.

As the name of the restaurant implies, the close ties of the sisters is central to its operation and appeal.

"We are very fortunate to have pretty much the same likes and dislikes," Williams said, while also offering that "working with my sisters, the word 'work' doesn't resonate. It's more like recess when we get together."

DeVencenty allowed that "We chide each other a little bit" but that, "We knew we would be able to work well together. We're just grateful. Some siblings don't get along. We're truly sisters and we're best friends at the same time."

By dennis Darrow the pueblo Chieftain DDARROW@chieftain.com