The Building.
The Buckhorn Steakhouse proudly occupies a historical landmark: the former De Vilbiss Hotel, which was built in 1889 by prominent Winters rancher John A. De Vilbiss. The elegant, modern, and welcoming hotel was THE showplace building of the west side of the Sacramento Valley.
The first floor originally contained an office, dining room, a large kitchen, two business rooms, and a bar (which remains today). The rooms were handsomely furnished, and the hotel housed its own gas machine to supply the Montague Patent French Range in the kitchen as well as the then-state-of-the-art chandeliers. The hotel boasted two staircases to the second floor, which included 40 sleeping rooms and a parlor. Although the rooms are long gone, the framework remains, and one can imagine what the space must have looked like in its prime.
While much of Winters and Vacaville were leveled by a devastating earthquake in 1892, the Hotel De Vilbiss remained standing. Four years later, Mr. De Vilbiss sold the hotel to I.V. Hughes, who continued its operation, but lost the original 72-foot cupola to a fire in 1915.
The hotel then became a grocery and hardware store in 1917 when T.H. Fenley purchased the building.
Twenty-some years later, after the repeal of the Prohibition Amendment, De Vilbiss’s son-in-law Joe “Boggs” Griffin reacquired the building and opened a bar. He and his son ran the bar for another nearly 20 years, during which time a Chinese (and later Italian) restaurant also operated in the building.
In 1951, De Vilbiss’s great-grandson Ben Stephens took over and became a fixture at the Buckhorn Bar for a quarter century until he retired in 1976. During this time, Burma and Vic Mentink also operated the Buckhorn Dining Room from 1967-1977.
In 1980 John Pickerel acquired the Buckhorn business, and in 1991 his wife Melanie Bajakian-Pickerel refurbished the De Vilbiss banquet room and brought back its original charm and décor.
While the ownership, décor, and Winters itself have changed over the years, the spirit of friendly hospitality that made Hotel De Vilbiss so popular at the turn of the century continues today at the Buckhorn Steakhouse more than 100 years later.