Duplantis buys Pow Wow restaurant

Local restaurateur Todd Duplantis recently purchased the Pow Wow Restaurant and Lizard Lounge in Tucumcari from the ownership group that held it for about 20 years.

Duplantis said he closed the deal in late January on the buyout of the company, DFL Properties, that held the West Tucumcari Boulevard establishment. DFL consists of Jerry Mares, his brother Daniel Mares and Frank Gillard.

That deal closed shortly after he opened another restaurant, The Stone’s Sports Grill and Bar, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which he described as a second version of his Cornerstone’s First Edition restaurant in Tucumcari.

Duplantis said he and Jerry Mares had been “joking back and forth” for several years about his buying the Pow Wow, but the talk turned serious about eight months ago.

“We had a pretty good last year or two with the other restaurants and felt like it was time to expand some stuff,” Duplantis said.

The attached Pow Wow Inn hotel was not part of the purchase.

Duplantis also owns the Kix on 66 restaurant and Vaquero Asador steakhouse in the Quality Inn hotel on the city’s east end, the latter which he said will reopen in March once spring break arrives.

Duplantis said don’t expect changes at the Pow Wow.

“I’m not looking at putting my fingerprints on it,” he said. “I think the menu’s fine; the staffing’s fine. This is, in my opinion, more of an investment than anything. I didn’t go in looking to change anything. I think they’ve done really good, and it’s like Kix … Kix is an investment. I’m not going to fix something that’s not broken.”

Jerry Mares said it was “a combination of things” that prompted his ownership group to sell the Pow Wow. He did not elaborate.

“I wish him well and hope he can keep it thriving. It was a very good restaurant,” Mares said.

As for Stone’s, Duplantis described it as “95% of Cornerstone’s, with a few extra items to match up with Colorado.”

He said the reception of his venture in Colorado Springs has been good.

“It turned around a little place that wasn’t doing too well that’s now not doing too bad,” he said.

It also helps business that Tucumcari residents know where to stop if they make a trip up Interstate 25 in Colorado.

“We have a lot of Tucumcari folks that have come out here,” he said.