Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Very mild winter. Even with being down hurt most of Jan., we've gotten a lot of work done in our forest!
We've burnt 32 large slash piles so far this winter. Have about 5 large piles to go once we get a bit more snow.
We work extremely hard on our property and would like to reward ourselves once we complete a lot of task.
Going out to the damn restaurant food is about fit only for a dog! Good pizza is almost non existent.
We use to drive all the way to belle fouch to a pizza place that closed. Best pizza we've ever had!
Gillette's not horrible but not much of a reward either!
Hard to believe it's so difficult for good restaurants exist.
We eat late lunches at the prime rib, cheaper then fast food lot of time we get out around $20 to $25. Buffalo jump , have never had a bad meal there. Pizza Carrello with their fire brick oven good but is a pricy pie. We just turn the oven up to 475 , put in a pizza stone and make our own. The Cheese shop that across the road from Albertson has some good cheese, and lot of times cheaper then the grocery store. Neighbor been burning slash piles , one he did the snow storm before last flared up , he had to get a fire truck , from the fire hall, 1000 gallons and two acres burned. He said no mor burning slash piles the year...
We have tremendous respect for fire! We still have about 8-10" snow in the forest. Some bare where the sun able to get through. We'll have to try the Buffalo jump. Thank you
How I met lot of my neighbors, July 6th 2016 , Rotary swather angled a little too much. Oshoto, Carlile, Moorcroft and Pine Haven had fire trucks here. Weed and pest had a water trailer parked in the same field , it worked as a tender. Got it out after 4 acres. Carlile put out a fire up on top of Cyclone about 3 years ago.
Reasonable tasting food in Wyoming is few and far between! I've lived here since 1974 and moved/ate all over the state and watched a unreal amount of good eateries go extinct. Now add another dimension wanting to pay a reasonable price and you weed out even more.
the hospitality business in Wyoming has delivered a consistently poor performance for me ever since my first trips here in the 1960's ... and as a resident since 1999.
My first trip was to Frontier Days in 1965. I wanted a "good steak" ... and was told by several vendors and my hotel clerk that the "best in town" was a local steakhouse in Cheyenne. It was a big splurge for a college student, but I hoped it would be a great experience. Suffice to say it wasn't ... slices of the crusty boots from the rodeo served lukewarm would have been more appetizing and probably less chewy than the "T-bone steak" I was served. And when my server realized that I was an under-age kid so there was no alcohol gonna' be served to bring up the tab, I was placed on ignore ... I recall it was a 2-hour visit for a simple steak/baked potato/wedge of lettuce "salad" meal. Suffice to say that my expectations were not fulfilled and the twenty-five cent tip I left was excessive for the service I'd received.
I'd had far better at middle-of-the road places in Denver such as the "cork 'n cleaver" for a lot less expense, or a couple of the "cheapie" no-frills grills around Denver at the time. By way of comparison, I'd been to some of the up-line restaurants in Denver where I'd been served terrible meals with intentionally & deliberate poor service ... like having a plate of food "delivered" by a waiter who was turned on his heels to fawn over an adjacent table before my plate had even landed on the table with a splash. And the steak was well-done compared to my ordered "blue". I recall leaving a cash ten-cent "tip" for the waiter on that tab and signing my CC receipt for the meal ... only to later get my CC statement with a huge increase on the charge. I called the restaurant and got them to find the CC receipt ... and the "waiter" had marked their copy with a "25% tip" as "customary" at the place. So I followed up with a personal visit to the manager and showed him my copy of the CC tab which I'd signed and told him about the quality (or lack thereof) of the "service" and food I'd received. The owner refunded my CC charge and gave me a couple "comp" meal tickets by way of apology for the experience ... and I was so turned off by the place that I never went back to use those meal tickets.
I relate those poor experiences by way of introducing what I've found to be the consistent performance of Wyoming restaurants in the many decades since then. For a state with communities that financially depend so much upon their tourist and hospitality trade, it's amazing that we get such cra*py results. Especially if you consider that relying upon a local trade base is essential to a year-round cash flow for business survival.
Indeed, I've watched numerous "good" restaurants throughout the state, and locally here in Cheyenne ... simply go out of business in very short order. Everything from ethnic restaurants to upscale dining. Recently, one of the "best" Mexican restaurants in Cheyenne, that had expanded into a 2nd location a year ago ... closed their 2nd location and scaled back to their original location. We were somewhat taken aback at the unexpected closure but returned to their original location ... where the food we'd previously enjoyed for years was now a shadow of it's former self. The menudo I'd enjoyed for years ... was now without the wonderful broth that was it's trademark for so long. We won't be back there now as there's a food truck a few miles away with much better food at a comparable price.
I used to seek out destinations throughout Wyoming with a good reputation ... off to Hudson for Svilar's, now a travesty compared to what it was years ago. Not worth the trip anymore. Same to be said for The Cavalryman in Laramie. And the Wyoming Chop House ... with several branches in Wyoming that all used to be consistently pretty good when they first opened and for a few years ... are now not worth your time and money, with much smaller portions and much higher prices. Cheyenne's "best" steakhouses of yesteryear ... a fraction of what they used to be. I had a friend acquire what used to be an excellent restaurant in Dubois as an investment ... he went through several different "chef" restaurant owners, all of whom weren't able to survive in that tourist town ... he even had a "blue ribbon" trained chef from back East come out here who was gonna' show "ignorant locals" how to run a fab Italian restaurant ... the guy had a wonderful menu and started out with some excellent food, only to go downhill despite having a packed house most nights. He managed to pay the rent for the first couple of months, then the food portions and quality cratered ... and he didn't stay for but a few months longer, not paying his rent.
It seems like so many "local" restaurants here rely upon commissary prepared foods from the major warehouse food delivery services ... and there's no real "chef" prepared on-site meals. It's all "heat 'n serve" *rap ... microwaved and then left out to await delivery by the waitstaff, so the food is generally lukewarm or well below a proper serving temperature, with oft-times the entree quite different than the side dishes for temperature. Bear in mind that the big chain restaurants all do this ... and I've watched as even some of those came and went here in Cheyenne, too. Seems like the only formula for survival in the biz here in Wyoming towns is a "fast food" franchise ... all of which are forgettable, IMO ... as "food" is a formulaic concoction of the lowest quality with so many unknown additives that you really don't want to be consuming if you knew they were what you were being served.
I've been to Gillette several times in the last few years on business trips ... and found one little Mexican place which was pretty good with some excellent regional entrees, but they were short-lived as the original owners apparently sold out to a new operation and the place is now "gringo food for the American taste"; if you like the gooey gloppy cheesy smothered beans'n'rice platter with a smattering of not-too-spicy meats instead of the original al pastor and other specialty meats, or a lovely ceviche ... this is your place. I tried one of the upscale steak houses there and I would have done better with a Swanson's platter from the frozen food case heated up on my 2-burner stove in my RV ... bluK! $40 with no alcohol tab there and I left hungry ... even the salad was worn out before it got served to me. Fortunately, I had a stocked galley in my RV and rustled up real meals for the rest of my biz trip there.
To give you a further idea of how poor food service is across Wyoming ... As a traveling sales rep, I used to call on businesses in Riverton. Typically, when the Noon hour approached it was customary to invite your clients to lunch. I've done that and had the clients decline to go "out to eat" because "there's no place here in town we'd want to eat at". I've had some of them invite me to join them for a lunch that their wives brought in because they wouldn't even go to the fast food places that were nearby. IMO, that's a pretty poor commentary on the caliber of food service there when they turn down a "free lunch" ... where they know there's no strings attached, no pressure to buy my products/services and we usually visited about the local fishing conditions and other matters of prime importance, not business.
There are a few places we've found that are the exception to those problematic places ... Della's Bistro in Saratoga, The Diamond Cafe in Cheyenne, Niko's in Laramie. Anong's branches do OK. Pour Decisions in Cheyenne can be good ... but sometimes uneven, so it's been "hit and miss" on a couple of their entrees and sides. Surprisingly, the food service at LCCC in Cheyenne ... oft-times, the "best" quality food in town, although the service is all on you with it being self-serve buffet style, and they, too, have their "really good" days to some entrees that can be a disappointment ... but bear in mind that the price is not up there with the more "upscale" places that can be so bad.
Perhaps you know of a local treasure that you can recommend? I'm up for anything with good food and value ... doesn't have to be "fancy", and I'm not seeking the alcohol beverages as a measure of a good place ... the food and service is paramount, "atmosphere" can be anything from a food truck to anything that isn't gross and uninviting.
PS: For us, if we're seeking a good dining out experience, we usually travel out of state ... surprisingly, even small towns like Greeley and Brush CO have some gems worth your time & dollars. It's almost the same distance for us to travel to Brush CO as it is to go to Laramie WY, so given the choice, we'll head to Brush. Longer trips Westward ... we'll head to SLC UT.
And, FWIW ... we've had similar mixed results in adjacent states ... Toot's in Chappell NE was a local treasure for good sandwiches, but Dave closed that down last year. I go to Sidney NE fairly frequently ... and the food scene there is as poor as Cheyenne, there's not one restaurant there I'd recommend ... got severe food poisoning (e coli) at a restaurant there last August which had a rep as one of the best places in town yet a not publicized history of that problem from their kitchen (but known to the local hospital folks).
PPS: it's a pretty sad state of affairs when you head into some of the "nicer" restaurants in so many Wyoming towns and there's a sign posted at the door referencing that they have a staffing shortage so that the food service may be slow, advising you if you cannot accept that situation, "please go somewhere else". Waiting tables is a relationship sales event ... and for the most part, even if a kitchen is slow a good server can make you feel welcome and appreciated. Seems to me that so many people these days don't approach that job with anything less than an entitlement mentality and expect a minimum 20% tip for merely delivering food 20 steps or less from the kitchen. You can really tell the pro's from the wanna-be's ... I usually only drink water with a meal; the pro's make sure my glass is refilled, the wanna-be's put you on ignore me after that, even if they're at the table refilling coffees. I tip accordingly.
We recently ordered a pizza in Newcastle at Pizza Hut for lunch. Ordered it online and drove all the way down there and the doors were locked. No one around. Lol, they called us about 3 pm and said our pizza was ready. Uhh ok, we were there at noon and no one was around. They said they were late getting there! We won't go back.
We have several retired friend couples that evidently eating diff places is a big deal and they often rave about the food. So we try it and evidently get a different cook!
So we decided to build an outdoor kitchen setup.
After I finished trimming the boys hooves today I was out cruising our property on the tractor for pizza oven rocks at 10f, lol. We have a few flat rock, outcroppings that I can cut to make a decent pizza oven.
Were also studying, in ground green houses.
Funny, because I've never been a picky eater. If it wasn't for my wife, I'd probably lose a good bit of weight that I don't even have to lose!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
