Set against the backdrop of the Reed Avenue Rail Corridor, the Old Cheyenne Elevator (the OCE for short) is ready to capture the investment spotlight of the West Edge, Cheyenne’s next great neighborhood.
Ful-O-Pep LLC, the property’s ownership group, will redevelop the elevator building into a unique food & entertainment gathering destination that is built on the principle of amplifying local food and beverage entrepreneurs while cultivating community relationships. This is a place for friends to gather to sample Cheyenne’s culinary upstarts, and to build toward a thriving restaurant scene.
THE FOOD
The establishment will provide a year-round, indoor landing pad for local food trucks that currently experience a major slowdown during Wyoming’s harsh winters. By providing an ongoing venue for food truck exploration, audience demand for new flavors can be nurtured with the end goal of spinning off new permanent restaurant concepts across the city. At least two truck spaces are envisioned inside the building, loading through ramps and roll-up garage doors. An additional food truck space is being contemplated in the courtyard to support additional diversity.
THE BEVERAGE
In conjunction with this rotating mobile food menu, the elevator will offer guests a permanent, full-service bar in a space that excites the eye and is welcoming to the entire family. Accentuating the historic post and beam architecture of the space, spending time in the OCE transports you to another place and time. Not your typical sports bar, the beverages served will highlight local producers, inviting relaxation, catching up with friends, and watching the kids play in the courtyard. Our rollup garage-style doors will welcome in Cheyenne’s unbeatable summer breeze, while creating broader connections to our neighbors in the West Edge. For events, the OCE will book out the adjoining private dining room for special events, along with several patio spaces that can be reserved for reunions and family gatherings.
THE CRAFT
Guests will also have the opportunity to take home craft brews and distilled spirits from the packaged liquor store, highlighting some of the best beverages that Wyoming has to offer. This isn’t your typical beer-locker, rather it is a celebration of art that is brewing and distilling. Wyoming is our home, and we will focus attention on building up our local producers. Drawing inspiration from the handcrafted beverages on our bar menu, guests will be able to purchase a curated selection of Wyoming’s best beers, whiskeys, and more.
“Traditionally, food trucks tend to close down for the winter, fearful that the below freezing temperatures will severely damage their trucks. Some just pack up all of their flavorful ingredients and move to an area where it’s warmer and easier to sell.”
Wyoming Tribune Eagle, January 9, 2022, “Local food truck owners put their foot on the gas heading into winter”
NEED FOR A RETAIL LIQUOR LICENSE
The team here at OCE respects the opportunity that a liquor license presents the community. With the limited availability of retail liquor licenses, our first step was to review the variety of licenses available under Wyoming’s system to determine if we could operate under any of the other available licenses. Unfortunately, based on the mix of uses in our concept, the Old Cheyenne Elevator cannot operate under any of the other available licenses, as depicted in the table below. Additionally, due to the unique building constraints, the food truck approach is the only way to redevelop the property to include a food and beverage program and position the building to its highest and best use. From a cost and space perspective, the amount of investment it would take to install a commercial food kitchen is more investment than what would be returned.
The Old Cheyenne Elevator 