Tim Harty, The Business Times

Spike Howard doesn’t have to wake up early and be out the door at 6:30 a.m. for work seven days a week anymore.

For his wife, family, friends and employees, this is weird.

This is we-must-be-in-some-bizarre-alternate-universe stuff.

But it’s true. It’s happening. Spike Howard is retiring!

On Dec. 16, he sold the Dos Hombres restaurant and building, at 3245 I-70 Business Loop in the Peach Tree Center in Clifton, to a married couple from Glenwood Springs, Edgar and Keila Valenzuela.

And now for the first time in 50 years, Spike Howard, a man known for his work ethic, versatility and reliability, does not own a restaurant. He will help the Valenzuelas transition for 90 days, then that’s it. Done. Retired!

After 50 years, “I guess it’s about time,” he said.

The sale closed on a Monday. And that day something dawned on Howard that he didn’t dare dream about for five decades: That day, turning over the keys of the last of the many restaurants he has owned and operated over the years, he could be comfortable.

“When you’re in business, you’re never comfortable, never,” Howard said. “In the restaurant business you’re always worried about Tuesday. You’re always worried about November, because it’s a short month, and it’s a slow month. And you’re always worried about closing for Christmas. And you’re always worried about employee staffing.

“And there’s so many things that you … I mean, I didn’t realize the difference until Monday, what the difference is to not have to worry about that stuff anymore. You know, I can spend time with my wife. I don’t have to worry about cash flow, all these things that come in, and making sure that payroll’s …”

Howard didn’t finish that sentence, because saying payroll triggered a redirect to one of his greatest sources of pride as a business owner.

“In 50 years of business, I’ve never missed a payroll, never not been on time,” he said. “And there’s been times when I didn’t pay myself, but I never did not pay my employees, ever.

“So, I’m proud of that. I’m proud of the fact that we’ve been consistent with that to our employees, and they’ve always been able to trust me, that I’m never gonna miss a payroll for them. … I think it’s so important to take care of your people.”

The road to retirement was long, because Howard, now 72 years old, got started as an entrepreneur early. Just the idea of owning his own business was something his father, Del, instilled in him as a child.

“My dad was in the car business, so he kind of showed us about entrepreneurship,” Howard said. “And he ultimately went bankrupt, and our family lost everything when I came to college (in Grand Junction). But what he did show us was that we wanted to be our own boss and be in business someday.”

Howard took that lesson to heart. That’s why in 1974, at age 22 and with little money but a lot of resolve, he and his brother, Scott, and his mother, Gloria, defied the odds and bought a restaurant: Williams Deli at 801 First St. in Grand Junction.

It was a convenience store in the front and a delicatessen in the back, where meats, cheeses, sandwiches and Mexican food were served.

“We tried to buy it, and there was no bank in town that would work with us,” Howard said, “so we worked out a deal, a lease deal, until we could get some credit to buy Williams Deli. And so, the first day we started with no credit, COD (cash on delivery) and 400 bucks.

“I was 22, and my brother was 21, and my mom was 55, and we had no experience at all in food service, so we were kind of flying blind.”

But they had help from the business owner, Daniel Williams, and it didn’t take long for the Howards to gain their footing.

“In six months we were able to get enough credit to buy the business from Danny, Daniel Williams,” Spike Howard said. “And he was great. He helped us just get going, and his family, his mom worked for us for quite a while, and they were just really instrumental in helping just two dumb college kids and their mom get started.”

That set the stage for the next restaurant purchase, which came in 1977, a restaurant on the Redlands that would be named for the two Howard boys: Dos Hombres. Spike Howard said he wanted to work his mom into the restaurant’s name, too, but “she was fine with just Dos Hombres.”

Diners in the Grand Valley quickly took a liking to the restaurant, which built its menu off the one at Williams Deli and expanded the Mexican food offerings.

“We were successful,” Spike said. “It was a small restaurant, but we had people waiting out the front door, and it was a very successful little restaurant.”

That paved the way for buying the next restaurant, the one that would become the Clifton Dos Hombres in Coronado Plaza. The oil-shale boom made Clifton a good place to be when the Howards opened the Dos Hombres there in 1981. A year later, Black Friday, the day Exxon shut down its operations and left town, and the oil-shale bust devastated the Grand Valley.

The Clifton Dos Hombres survived, Spike said, because the Redlands Dos Hombres continued to do well enough to keep the Clifton location afloat.

More restaurants came for the Howard boys, such as Dos Hombres in Glenwood Springs and Colorado Springs, but the brothers eventually split up because they had different visions.

Spike Howard opened a couple Quiznos restaurants, and he said they did well, but as a franchisee, he had issues with corporate leadership. At one time he was looking at opening three more Quiznos, but he ended up selling his two and moving on.

Spike had a few more business ventures aside from restaurants. He owned Flying Fish Sushi for a while, subcontracting with Kroger/City Market to supply fresh sushi to 14 City Markets on the Western Slope.

He got in the business of building hangars at Grand Junction Regional Airport for a spell.

Spike eventually scaled back on his business endeavors, selling them off gradually.

The sale of the Clifton Dos Hombres on Dec. 16 leaves him with one business, the Ore House Inn, a former restaurant that Spike and business partner John Webber turned into an Airbnb in New Castle. Spike said he thinks he and Webber “are going to sell that pretty soon.”

Spike’s greater involvement in recent years has been the Clifton Dos Hombres, which is why selling it marks the start of his retirement.

Lori Howard, Spike’s wife of 38 years, is glad to see the day arrive.

“He’s worked seven days a week for as long as I’ve known him, and about the last year-and-a-half, just got it down to six days a week,” she said. “We haven’t had weekend morning coffee together for years, so this will be a whole new thing for us.”

Spike said other factors are part of his decision to retire, such as health issues in recent years, and he proceeded to list prostate cancer, knee surgery and spine surgery. The spine surgery, he said, was in early December.

He then spoke of wanting to spend more time with loved ones.

“I’ve got three beautiful grandkids and three wonderful kids,” he said. “And I need to spend more time with my family, my beautiful wife, Lori.”

Lori said that sounds great, but she also used the word “weird.”

“It’ll be really weird, I think, just to have him wake up one morning and not have to be gone out the door at 6:30 a.m.,” she said. “It’s not something I’m used to.”

THE NAME REMAINS THE SAME

Spike Howard said he’s leaving the Clifton Dos Hombres restaurant in good hands with the sale to Edgar and Keila Valenzuela.

For starters, they’re keeping the restaurant’s name the same, and they have restaurant experience.

“I would like to get the word out they’re really good people,”

Howard said. “I think they’re going to do good things.”