Cheyenne, WY- your thoughts (Albany, Little America: sales, houses, neighborhood)

[MountainBiking]

What are your thoughts and opinions about Cheyenne? How are the businesses doing economically? Is Cheyenne generally a good place to live? Lousy weather? A decent place to start a small business?

-Cheers.

[BennyPhoenix]

I like it here.
It's generally cold, windy, and dry. I love the summer here.
Businesswise, if you do business with the government it is a good place to be. It seems like every other person I meet works for the government, easy to make connections for that.
Easy to start a business here, not as easy as some other places in the state, but easier than almost any other state. Whether your business will succeed is another story, not a lot of people here, makes it tougher to find good employees and get customers. Overall, I'd say it depends on your business.

[MountainBiking]

Thanks for your reply, Benny. How do you view the restaurant business in Cheyenne? I mean, is it over saturated with eateries? Just enough? Or is their room for a few more?

-Cheers.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by MountainBiking

Thanks for your reply, Benny. How do you view the restaurant business in Cheyenne? I mean, is it over saturated with eateries? Just enough? Or is their room for a few more?

-Cheers.

Cheyenne is seriously lacking in better restaurants than the mediocre quality of the major franchise restaurants in town, and most of the rest of local outfits lower themselves to that level at best ...

Well, maybe not even that good. If the yardstick for italian food is The Olive Garden, then the italian restaurants in town aren't even that good. Chinese food is a disaster ... will have you thinking fondly of the steam table substances that you had in high school or college food service. The Vietnamese is incredibly bad, and the local Japanese gives great advertising for why we go to Fort Collins instead. Mexican food has two OK places, and a number of not OK places in town.

OTOH, I don't think there's a great demand for really upscale places. The local steakhouses are OK ... but sometimes the truck stops are just as good as the steakhouses; depends upon the kitchen staff/chef they may have at the time.

FWIW, we had a downtown cafe/coffee shop that closed down a few years ago due to a kitchen fire and hasn't been re-opened ... they were close the the gov't offices and hospital area, downtown; a fabulous neighborhood and business district location. On Lincolnway A Dunkin' Doughnuts, then Daylight donuts ... which always seemed to do a good business ... folded earlier this year.

If you look at the cluster of restaurants on Lincolnway or Dell Range, you'll see that the mainstay of them are franchises ... burgers, pizza, sub sandwiches, fried chicken, pub-themed (Applebee's, etc), mexican franchises, steakhouses (Texas Roadhouse, Outback ... both highly forgettable, for me inedible), breakfast places (Egg & I) .....

If you can come to town with just about any cusine ... even basic American fare ... and do a decent job at a fair price ... I think you could do well here.

Biggest competition will be from Poor Richard's, Little America, The Albany, The Plains, and Senator's at the Terry Bison Ranch. I'm not sure of the status of the Little Bear after their kitchen fire ....

[MountainBiking]

Thanks for your awesome post, sunsprit. I understand there's a Q'doba and a Chipotle in town. Are these places busy and are they located in good locations?

-Cheers.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by MountainBiking

Thanks for your awesome post, sunsprit. I understand there's a Q'doba and a Chipotle in town. Are these places busy and are they located in good locations?

-Cheers.

Yes, both on Dell Range Blvd. Both appear moderately busy at times, to judge by the parking lots. Neither appeal to me, as they cannot make up in quantity what they sorely lack in quality ... I grew up on "real" mexican food, and their offerings just don't do it for me ... so I'm not a patron.

This is the core shopping district of Cheyenne, with the mall and strip malls, as well as big box stores (Wal-Mart, Sam's, KMart, Target), and close by the Lowe's. To be found along here are the widest selection of franchise eateries ... with the pub-themed places, Texas Roadhouse, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and a number of locally owned places. A CB & Potts was previously in the location of the garden and the burrito emporium, and that pub didn't make it in Cheyenne. Oh, there's also a Perkins just down the street ... bluck.

Dell Range business district is about 20 blocks long, so it's a pretty concentrated commercial area for a town of 50,000 population.

You can reach Lincolnway from Dell Range in a matter of a few minutes, so that's the other commercial central area of town, and the hub of the gov't offices, law firms, professional businesses, the hospital/medical complex, and the traditional "downtown" area of Cheyenne adjacent to the railroad complex.

Overall, I have seen the restaurants of Dell Range stay in business ... while I have seen several along Lincolnway come and go through the years. The pancake houses on Lincolnway seem to do alright, and Guadalajara opened a second restaurant (from Dell Range) on Lincolnway which seems to be busy most days ... although I got food poisoning there twice from their ceviche and now avoid the place, but didn't have any problems with the carnitas or green chile.

If you are thinking of mexican food ... I think the "real stuff" will be a hard sell in this town. We've had two pretty good places with that menu in the past several years ... one on Lincolnway that was really good, but didn't make it two years (despite my efforts to bring people there), and one just off Lincolnway that recently closed after 8 monhts although they use the kitchen for their commercial catering as well as farmer's market and flea market sales (burritos, tamales, salsa). With as many failed restaurants as there have been in their location (2 blocks off Lincolnway), perhaps that was also an issue. Had very good carne asada and a few forays into the nice stuff like cheeksmeat ....

We do have a "new" 24 hour (what a concept, huh?) mexican restaurant on Lincolnway (in an old KFC location) that leans toward real stuff, with typical condiment bar ... but the formula doesn't seem quite right to me yet. Had their menudo last Saturday and couldn't find the oregano, onions, or lime wedges ... and their menudo was laden with pig feet jelly/parts but very light on the tripe, although the seasoning was pretty much on the money (I've enjoyed way too many bowls that came off as ethereal, and this wasn't there). In a decent sized bowl, I'd expect more than 5 little strips of tripe to be present, and al dente as opposed to boiled down to a gummy consistency. IF they've got hot sauce, they must be hiding it from the gringo's ... and I didn't see it in evidence at the ethnic groups. IMO, they need a good pico de gallo and a selection of spicy condiments (if not outright heat) ... even Taco John's here in Cheyenne can muster that stuff up, although their menu isn't an improvement over Taco Hell or similar food-like dining establishments.

There are some bar based mexican restaurants in town that are targeted to the gringo taste, with substances that appear to be of mexican derivatives. Outside of their persistent health/sanitation issues ... the food is at the far end away from the genuine gnarly good stuff. Disgusting might be a better description, it's horrible and an insult to the cuisine that it pretends to come from. I'm not sure they're simply buying frozen burritos and such from Nobel or Shamrock and just 'waving them ... but it sure tastes like it. The folk who don't know anything but their grocer's frozen food case apparently think this is what mexican food is all about, so these places do survive here.

I think somebody could make a killing here with a mexican restaurant that had the full spectrum of real stuff ... and real flavors from fresh ingredients cooked from scratch. Starting with the traditional breakfast items, to lunches with a wide variety of meats (lengue, cheeksmeat, shredded pork, beef, chicken, cabrito) barbocoa as either stand-alone items or in burritos/tacos. A real opportunity would be to feature stuff like a mexican style bar-b-que half chicken platter, say once a week for a day special. Folk here would expect "green" smothering or red sauce on wet burritos or gorditas, so a New Mexico style "green" could be a killer here. Fish tacos would sell well, IMO ... if using fresh ingredients. Mariscos menu could sell well here, too ... at least shrimp (possibly pulpo) and some deepwater fish platters. Seis Mares type cocktails or platters could sell well, albondigas soup, too. Right now I have to go to a few dumpy places in Greeley to satisfy the seafood items craving, or over to SLC (which is not very convenient).

Ah, so much for my dreaming of a quality mexican food establishment here in Cheyenne. Perhaps you are thinking along these lines? The opportunity is here because so much of your potential competitors simply have lost their way toward good food.

[MountainBiking]

Let me guess. You are the Cheyenne's newspaper food critic!! J/K. Awesome post again. Thanks for the information. Very well written. And yes I just might set up a restaurant in Cheyenne. Its time to get out of California. I'm researching demographics of a handful of western cities that I would like to relocate to and open an upscale quick service restaurant. Cheyenne is tough due to the size of population and the number of eating establishments it already has in the metro area. We'll see what happens.

Thanks to you I'm craving menudo big time. Maybe tomorrow morning after my long bike ride. A machaca burrito (hold the bell pepper) also sounds yummy. Thanks again.

-Cheers.

[BennyPhoenix]

Originally Posted by MountainBiking

Thanks for your reply, Benny. How do you view the restaurant business in Cheyenne? I mean, is it over saturated with eateries? Just enough? Or is their room for a few more?

-Cheers.

There are not enough good restaurants here. But I dont know how well a new one would do. Good restaurants tend to cost more than Applebees and this town just doesn't have that many people who will/can pay more than for Applebees.
Restaurants are a very tough business, I would not open up one here, it doesn't make good business sense.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by BennyPhoenix

There are not enough good restaurants here. But I dont know how well a new one would do. Good restaurants tend to cost more than Applebees and this town just doesn't have that many people who will/can pay more than for Applebees.
Restaurants are a very tough business, I would not open up one here, it doesn't make good business sense.

Agreed, there are not enough good restaurants here.

And nobody, even experienced restaurant operators/developers "know how well a new one would do".

Have you looked at the price points of (Cr)applebee's? IF that's your guideline of entree price levels that Cheyenne area clientele is willing to pay, then there's a lot of room for a mexican menu. It seems to me that the times we've been dragged to (Cr)applebee's, it's tough to get out the door for two at less than a low $20 tab ... without any alcohol, too.

Restaurants are a very tough business. I'd open one up in a heartbeat here if I had any experience and qualifications to do so. I don't ... but I do know the pricepoints of places in Denver and SLC that are hoppin' with business and good to great food, and appear to be making money for their owners. Cheyenne would be a less expensive market to open up in then those two cities due to lower rents. There's the building on Lincolnway still vacant from that one very good mexican restaurant that folded up a few years ago ... good access, visibility, traffic count, parking, a decent sized kitchen and dining area.

Fortunately not the local paper food critic ... I'd have the low advertising revenues of the Tribune-Eagle plummeting in a few weeks of scathing reviews. Most of the restaurants here aren't just poor, or bad ... they just don't do anything beyond the lowest common denominator of food service from the big purveyors.

I have a luncheon group in town that I meet with once a week. We used to rotate through a lot of the area restaurants, but recently the group leader has decided to make Perkin's (uck!) our home base because it's very close to his home. I pointed out to him that I could get a very fresh, attractive, healthy soup and salad bar at Poor Richard's (one of the best restaurants in town) for the same money as the woefully presented plate of greens and an obligatory cherry tomato and a heavily salted prepared soup at Perkin's. Not only that, but Poor Richard's has a very nice dining space and good servers, while Perkin's has the plastic interior with all the functional appearance of an old outhouse, and the servers are clearly just trying to get people in and out of the place for table turns. It's the difference between a dining experience and simply getting fed.

[jody_wy]

Subsprit just a question, I do enjoy a eggs Benedict at the Egg and I, and a hamburger and sweet potato fries are not bad at the brew pub at the old UP depot. Semm like if not eating at LA I end up eating lamb rack at Outback when in Cheyenne?