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Volume 17, Number 11 | May 1-7, 2025
The original Smithy crew of 1975: (clockwise from upper left) Chris Chacos, Karen Kroeger, Terry Chacos, Linda Heller, Paul Lappala, Gayla Duckowitz, Peter (last name unknown), Anne “Tuna” Toomey and kiddos Ariel Heller, Charlie Chacos and Eric Chacos. Photo by Becky Young , The Valley Journal
Don’t change a thing
The Village Smithy celebrates 50 years on Cinco de Mayo JAMES STEINDLER Contributing Editor
Besides the entry door being moved along the west side of the building and an expansion, not a lot has changed at The Village Smithy over the past 50 years. You can still order bottomless coffee and hang around from opening to close, if you wish. And it all started with Chris and Terry Chacos, who met at a physical therapist convention in Denver. Chris’ dad immigrated from Greece and later settled in Oklahoma, where Chris was born. Terry was born and raised in the Mile High City.
Shortly after meeting, and during the Vietnam War, Chris signed up with a Quaker group to provide physical therapy services to the Vietnamese people. Terry, cut from the same cloth, decided to join. “Just from that brief introduction, she chase[d] him halfway across the world,” their son, Charlie, told The Sopris Sun. There, they happened to meet Paul Lappala of Carbondale. Among other properties, in Carbondale, such as 689 Main Street and the old Post Office (Beer Works), Lappala owned what is now The Village Smithy — and what was then the largest
tropical fish store on the Western Slope and once the forge of blacksmithing brothers Roy and Hugh Pattison. Upon their return, the Chacos moved to the Valley. Chris did construction work for Peter Dahl, on top of working at The Crystal
Palace. Terry put her physical therapy degree to use. After helping a buddy start a restaurant in Ouray, Chris was struck with the idea to do the same in Carbondale — a town of about 700 in 1975 with a dirt Main Street. Lappala suggested using his building on 3rd and Main, and the rest is history…
Opening The Smithy Starting out, the new restaurant served three meals a day. Terry did the books and Chris hardly left the restaurant. “He would get up at 5am [and] close
up at midnight,” Charlie said. “Unless it was a snow day,” HP Hansen, a longtime patron and friend of the Chacos, cut in. After Doug Worline got his hand caught in his snowblower, Chris stepped in to voluntarily move snow on the sidewalks along a good portion of Main Street. “We haven’t had another force like Chris since,” said Hansen. Chris would also shovel a path from their home on Garfield Avenue clear to the restaurant. Terry made all of the tablecloths and would take them home regularly, along with the aprons, continued on page 5