Popular Vail Village pizza restaurant, local hangout celebrates 40 years
Vendetta鈥檚 has been a Bridge Street Staple from its start
Tricia Swenson/Courtesy photo
It’s not easy for any business to make it 40 years, let alone a family-owned and operated pizza restaurant in a small ski town, but Vendetta’s in Vail is celebrating four decades this season.
John Brennan, better known as “Popeye” around town, feels fortunate for the opportunities that came his way, along with a little luck, that have preserved the culture of this iconic local’s hot spot in Vail Village.
“We’re a huge local hangout. I mean, if we didn’t have Vendetta’s, where would all the locals go? I guess we’re the ‘Cheers’ bar of Vail,” Brennan said.
Vendetta’s opened during the 1983-1984 season in Vail. At that point, it was just the downstairs portion of the now two-story restaurant. The downstairs restaurant had been La Cave and Pistachio’s before it became Vendetta’s and for a short stint it was Valentino’s.
“Opening up the restaurant was definitely a learning curve, especially for me, knowing what to do and what not to do. Well, first thing I found out is that I should have registered the name,” Brennan said.
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They received a notice in the mail from a pizza chain that was primarily in the Midwest called Valentino’s, but Brennan’s team had already printed all the logos, menus and the neon sign with the same name.
“They had the rights to the same name in Colorado, and we could have probably won that argument in court, but we didn’t have any money. I mean, $100 bucks was a big deal back then,” Brennan said. “So, I just told them, ‘we’ll change our name at the end of the ski season,’ and so we were Valentino’s for that very first winter.”
When looking for a new name for the restaurant, Brennan said they wanted it to still start with the letter V.
“I got smart in researching and registered the name for us and found that you could register the name Vendetta’s in almost in every state,” Brennan said.
The name stuck and Brennan said if you wear a Vendetta’s hat or t-shirt outside of Eagle 久久热精品视频app, people know what Vendetta’s is.
“It’s incredible, throughout the United States you might walk around, say, South Carolina with your Vendetta’s t-shirt on and somebody will come up and go, ‘I go to Vendetta’s. I love Vendetta’s,'” Brennan said. “I get that all the time when I’m in Scottsdale. People constantly come up to me and tell me they have been here or they met their spouse here or had their rehearsal dinner there.”
Brennan is joined by his business partners Dave “Bone” Chapin, who has been at Vendetta’s almost since the beginning and Shawn Meineke who was the general manager for over 20 years and is now a partner and Brennan’s daughter, Jennifer Riddle, who is the general manager of Vendetta’s. Brennan says that he’s happy to reach the 40 year mark and realizes that without the pizza side of Vendetta’s the restaurant maybe never would have made it.
“When we started, we were downstairs from Donovan’s Copper Bar and I love John Donovan, he’s been coming into Vendetta’s for years and we treat him like royalty. He’ll come in even before anyone gets here and grab the TV remote and hang out. But years ago when his lease was up, we took over his space,” Brennan said. “At first we didn’t know what to do with that small area facing Bridge Street, I think that is where John gave away free hot dogs, and almost sold it off at one point, but then in 1994 we decided to put the pizza ovens in and made it into a pizza bar.”
On the menu, Vendetta’s offers pizzas with names like Billy Bob’s Brain, Willy’s White Room, Ray Jay’s Wave and more. The slices were named after the chefs and staff members who helped shape the pizza operation from the beginning. Popeye’s Passion is named after Brennan, The Boneyard is named after Chapin and Knight Moves is named after Riddle.
“My maiden name is Knight and I liked the ‘Night Moves’ song by Bob Seger,” Riddle said.
“And it may have had something to do with karaoke singing that song late night with some dancing on the bar,” Meineke said.
“Yeah, the soda gun makes a good microphone,” Riddle said.
Vendetta’s has been the scene of many late night shenanigans but one thing Meineke noticed throughout his two decades of being a manager is how the nightlife scene has changed.
“We used to be open until 2 a.m. every night of the week, and we’d be packed, it was such a party town. And everyone came here, everyone lived here. All the bars were just crazy until 2 a.m. every night of the winter, it didn’t matter what week it was,” Meineke said. “And I think the biggest change that I’ve seen is the fact that we now close at midnight during the week and 1 a.m. in the weekends.”
Besides that and technology advancing from taking handwritten orders to now having everything computerized, much of what Vendetta’s is known for has remained the same.
“We still give a ‘raise’ to the Vail ski patrollers each day,” Chapin said, referring to a free beer given to patrollers at the end of their shift.
“The ski patrol was talking about unionizing one year and were in negotiations with what was Vail Associates at the time. It was turning into a kind of a tense negotiation, as you can imagine, and they were fighting over a small amount of money. So, John Donovan said, ‘Well, I got an idea. I’ll give you a raise. I’ll give you a free beer every day if you come in’ and that’s how the ski patrol started hanging out here,” Chapin said.
The staff has also seen the valley grow up at Vendetta’s.
“I guess I used to go behind the bar when I was about 4 years old and ask for cherries,” Riddle remembers.
“I’ve seen kids who were coming here with their parents when they were two years old, and now they come here for drinks as an adult,” Meineke said.
“And now we hire them,” Chapin added. “We hire all sorts of local kids whether it is for a summer job, or if they are just out of college or staying here.
Meineke credits Brennan and Vendetta’s for keeping him in the Vail Valley and giving him some great opportunities.
“Without Popeye, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today. I wouldn’t have been here for 21, 22 years,” Meineke said. “I was a liftie when I moved to Vail. I came in here, was broke, living paycheck to paycheck and I got a job as a pizza helper. I wasn’t even making pizzas, I was just running stuff up and down the stairs for them.”
“And Shawn became the number one manager. I mean, he ran this place for a long time. We were fortunate to have found Shawn,” Brennan said.
“We have created friendships with so many of our employees throughout the years and have created such a community that is kind of like a family,” Riddle said. “A lot of business groups and corporations are taking over restaurants and there’s really not that many restaurants that are independently owned anymore.”
“When you have family ownership like this, it goes a long way,” Chapin said. “The employees see Popeye here, they see Jen here, they see Shawn here. They know nobody’s sitting in Costa Rica going on their computer every day saying, ‘Oh, we made this much money today.’ They’re in the building.”
“If somebody asked me, ‘How would you sum up 40 years of Vendetta’s?’ I would say it’s community and family,” Chapin said. “I mean, really, that’s what we’ve been all about for years.”
