Meg Roussos / The BulletinBronco Billyís Ranch Grill & Saloon is located in the historic Hotel Sisters.

The Sisters Rodeo has come and gone for another year. So, too, have the annual summer quilt show and folk festival. But Bronco Billy’s Ranch Grill & Saloon carries on, as much a part of the community as the old Hotel Sisters to which it is inseparably attached.

In less than a year, Bronco Billy’s will celebrate its 30th anniversary. But it will do so under different ownership than it had for the first 29 years.

John Tehan and John Keenan, who opened the restaurant in partnership with the late Bill Reed in 1985, sold Bronco Billy’s on April 1 to Bill and Tammy Falconer, owners of the Pilot Butte Drive-In restaurants in Bend.

Built in 1912 as a 19-room inn, named for a rabble-rousing Camp Polk army scout, the Hotel Sisters offered rooms until 1978. Occupied at various times by an art gallery, a bookstore, an antiques store, a drugstore, a brothel (during the Roaring ’20s) and, some would say, as a haunt for ghosts, the building was fully renovated before its reopening as a restaurant in 1985.

The modern atmosphere maintains the flavor of the entire Sisters’ downtown, with its false 1880s storefronts and Victorian decor in the dining room. Posters of Western heroes in Stetson hats adorn the upper tiers of colorful wallpaper over lace window curtains. Servers who attend the spacious room — seating about 80, beneath ceiling fans, at booths and central tables — dress with country-western flair.

Dinner time

New owner Bill Falconer told The Bulletin in April that his goal at Bronco Billy’s was “to bring the quality here up to the level we serve at Pilot Butte.”

That’s kind of an apples-and-oranges comparison, unless one is only speaking of hamburgers. But in two separate visits with my regular dining companion, we agreed that the cuisine served at Bronco Billy’s, while it will never be mistaken for fine dining, is a big step above average home cooking. The wine list may not be substantial, but the produce is fresh and the meats are well prepared.

At a recent dinner, we started our meals with a loaf of warm sliced bread and a pair of salads. My companion had a Caesar salad, which had the unusual addition of sun-dried tomatoes to its romaine lettuce and anchovy paste-inclusive dressing.

My house salad, also made with hearts of romaine along with other mixed greens, blended tomatoes, carrots, red cabbage and house-made, marbled-rye croutons. A honey-mustard dressing was almost too sweet, but not so much so that I didn’t enjoy the salad.

As an entree, my companion had a dry-aged New York strip steak, grilled on an open flame. The Angus steak was not particularly thick (about three-quarters of an inch) and was cooked beyond the rare level that she normally prefers, but she never thought of sending it back. The beef was tender and flavorful.

I had a barbecued chicken breast that came smothered in sauce, topped with grilled onions (per my request) and with a very heavy layer of cheddar cheese (not my request and not expressed on the menu). After I scraped the cheese aside, I enjoyed a nice chicken dish.

Both of our entrees were accompanied by a medley of fresh vegetables and mashed potatoes. The skin-on spuds were blended with lots of garlic and topped with cheese. The sauteed veggies included bell peppers (green, red and yellow), red onions, mushrooms, zucchini and yellow squash, topped with a heavy sprinkle of dried basil leaves.

Saloon fare

We had our lunch in the saloon portion of the restaurant. Here, trappings of a modern sports bar (TVs and a locals’ game board) are superimposed upon a classic Old West-style watering hole, complete with vintage Western movie posters, heads of elk and bison, saddles and other ranch antiques, and a back-wall mural of high-kicking saloon girls.

The back bar, which stood for 50 years in Bend’s erstwhile Palace Tavern on Bond Street, was purchased in 1984 and moved to Bronco Billy’s by its former owners. John Keenan said it was built in the Civil War era in Philadelphia and shipped around Cape Horn to San Francisco, prior to finding its way to Central Oregon.

My luncheon order was a half rack of baby back ribs, dry-cooked but finished with a tangy barbecue sauce. The meat was so tender it fell off the bone. Some barbecue aficionados tell me that’s not the authentic Texas-style rib, but I love it that way.

Fries and slaw accompanied. Both were excellent. The slaw, in particular, delighted me, as it had a balance of sweet and peppery, and was neither soupy nor overly flavored with vinegar.

My companion opted for a Cobb salad, the recipe for which (according to Bronco Billy’s menu) was based upon the original concocted by owner Bob Cobb of Hollywood’s Brown Derby restaurant in 1937. Like something from a late-night refrigerator raid, it had chopped romaine and iceberg lettuces, crumbled blue and cheddar cheeses, sliced hard-boiled egg and avocado, chopped fresh tomatoes and black olives, and ample chunks of grilled chicken breast and crispy bacon. Sprinkled with green onions, it was topped with a thick slice of Texas toast sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.

Morning meals

One of the changes introduced by Billy’s new ownership is the addition of breakfasts. Although it is not yet complete on the restaurant’s website, the morning menu features hearty standards such as pancake stacks and chicken-fried steak and eggs. I have not yet visited for this meal.

Vegetarian diners may not find a lot to their liking here. The menu is heavily meat-oriented. Even the artichoke-and-spinach dip is topped with bacon bits. In addition to salads, a meal of two grilled “veggie kabobs” is offered; such Mexican meals as longhorn enchiladas can be made without meat. But calorie watchers are well served with such “light fare choices” as grilled salmon, chicken breast and prawn kabobs, all $15.95 to $16.95 for a full dinner.

Online reviewers in recent months have repeatedly complained about how slow service is here — that it may take 30 to 45 minutes or longer to have an order delivered. We did not find that to be the case in either of our recent visits.

The server who attended us at dinner was friendly and proficient. Our lunchtime server in the saloon was absolutely delightful, going the extra mile to bring extra dressings and sauces, to provide take-home boxes for leftovers, and even offering to change the television channel to something more desirable than ESPN’s Sports Center.

Had a good old shoot-‘em-up Western been on the air — something like Clint Eastwood’s 1980 classic, “Bronco Billy” — I might have taken her up on it.

— Reporter: janderson@bendbulletin.com