Benny's Restaurant & Lounge celebrates 70 years as a Colorado Springs staple

Mar. 28—Dana Wessells, the fifth owner in the 70-year history of Benny's Restaurant & Lounge in Colorado Springs, says his establishment doesn't fit neatly into any single category.

"We have 24 televisions, but we're not a traditional sports bar," said Wessells, who has owned Benny's for 11 years. "We have a kitchen, but we're not really a restaurant. It's kind of a mutt. But sometimes mutts are good."

Opened in March 1953 by Benny Raviotti, a local sportscaster, photographer and former minor league baseball player, the bar holds the longest concurrent liquor license in Colorado Springs and has been a staple for generations of patrons, Wessells said.

"We have customers who used to come in as kids, and sit at the bar with their grandfather and eat M&Ms," he said. "Then, as adults, they'd come in and have a beer with their dad, and now they come in and have a drink with their grown kids."

In appreciation of the loyal customers who have sustained Benny's for seven decades, Wessells is throwing a 70th birthday bash on Saturday. He didn't give many details, but said the folks who drop by will be glad they came. (Benny's Facebook page says to expect a show from longtime local musician Jake Loggins.)

"All I can do is give acknowledgment to the customers and the people who have kept (Benny's) going," Wessells said. "Because if they didn't, I wouldn't be here."

Despite holding bachelor's degrees in exercise physiology and physical education, with minors in coaching, business and psychology, Wessells has spent most of his life in the bar business, including 25 years of ownership. Prior to buying Benny's, he ran the now-closed Squatting Chicken Sports and Spirits for 14 years.

"I got a great education, but I haven't used it much," Wessells said, laughing. "I've been in this industry, pretty much, for my whole life."

When Wessells assumed ownership of Benny's in 2012, it was clear to him that the bar — housed in a 100-plus-year-old building on West Colorado Avenue — needed a few modern touches. But he didn't want to alienate customers who frequented the tavern for its old-school sensibility and décor.

"The place definitely needed some upgrading," he said. "But I didn't want to take away the reasons people have been coming to Benny's for decades."

A few doors down

Just a few doors down on the same block on West Colorado Avenue was the Dutch Mill Tavern, which had a run from 1947 through 2014, when 503 W Open Kitchen and Craft Bar opened in that space.

With this in mind, Wessells expanded the bar, knocking down the wall that separated Benny's from its next-door neighbor (formerly a small market operated by Raviotti's wife, Margaret) and multiplying the number of televisions from two to 24. But he left most of the dozens of framed photographs, most of which feature the bar's founder, and a carving called the "Six Fingered Man" — an odd piece of art commissioned as an attempt to pay off a delinquent bar tab in the 1950s.

"The nostalgia in this place is unbelievable," Wessells said.

The pictures cover nearly every inch of wall space in the tavern. There's the team photo of the 1957 NCAA hockey champion Colorado College Tigers. There's a picture of Billy Martin, the firebrand Major League Baseball manager and close friend of Raviotti who was stationed at Fort Carson during his brief stint in the Army in the 1950s. There's a beaming Raviotti, flanked by St. Louis Cardinals legends Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter.

Several of the bar's photos are featured in Roger Hadix's book, "Baseball in Colorado Springs."

"(Benny) was just a sports fanatic," Wessells said. "He obviously loved baseball, but he also loved hockey, and the Olympics ... and you can find it all on these walls."

The tavern's 70-year journey has had its share of roadblocks, the most recent being the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. In 2020, Wessells was forced to close the bar for five months — a move that "almost killed me financially," he said.

The following year, as businesses gradually reopened with COVID-induced restrictions, Wessells did away with the live music that had been a Benny's hallmark for years.

But 2022 was fraught with a different, unexpected difficulty: staffing.

"No one seems to want to work," Wessells said. "We're having a really hard time keeping the kitchen staffed. That's happening everywhere in the industry."

Still, as long as loyal customers keep rolling in, Wessells will figure out a way to keep serving them, he said.

"I signed a 20-year lease, so I've got nine years left," he said. "After that ...well, I'll cross that bridge when I get there."