Drinking Wyoming: Lamp Lounge Cleans Up Its Act, But Still A Cheyenne Dive Bar

Cowboy State Daily’s 'Drinking Wyoming' is presented by Pine Bluffs Distilling

CHEYENNE — The last time Rich A. was in the Lamp Lounge it was an unforgettable experience.

He had talked a girlfriend into coming with him to the bar, because they were only a couple blocks away and could walk to and from it without driving.

He knew it was a sketchy place, but he had no idea how far it had really sunk.

“After a couple of drinks, I walked into the guy’s bathroom, and there was a lady in there shooting up in her jugular,” Rich told cowboy State Daily. “She goes, ‘WTF are you doing here in the girl’s bathroom?’ And I told her, ‘Well, first of all, your drug paraphernalia is on the urinal.’”

Seeing that, she turned white, gathered up all her stuff as fast as she could and fled the men’s room with a syringe still hanging from her neck.

It was one of the last times Rich went to the Lamp Lounge at 101 W. 6th St.

Friday, though, he was back to check it out after seeing it has new owners.

“I saw dumpsters out front one day, and they told me they were remodeling,” he said. “This place used to be known as the place to go to get meth and cocaine, but they’ve really cleaned it up and stuff.”

Pub And Grub

In fact, the new owners, which includes Cheyenne local Michael Jordan, have not only cleaned the place up, they have some very big ideas for the small venue. And the changes they have in mind are just beginning.

But the whole thing started at the beginning with restoration of the Lamp Lounge’s historic penny bar, Jordan told Cowboy State Daily. That was a top priority, to bringing back the legendary bar that he remembered.

“There’s only so many penny bars in the United States anymore,” Jordan said. “And the whole bar, the back of the bar, the walls — it’s all done in pennies.”

It’s difficult to say just how many pennies are in the bar. A rough estimate found at least 20,000 in just the top of the bar where customers sit. That doesn’t count all the pennies in the back bar, or the tiny strip of pennies on the bar’s secondary ring.

Keeping the penny bar was important to the legacy and history of the Lamp Lounge, Jordan added, and that is one of the reasons Jordan decided to invest his time, effort and money in the bar.

That motivation has been underscored by all the south-side people who have come in to reclaim family photos and tell Jordan their stories about the bar in the good old days.

“People were like, ‘Oh man, I was married in that place. Les was my best man.’” Jordan said. “The stories people told me are incredible.

Those Poker Games

That includes the high-stakes underground poker the bar used to host in its basement. Just how high those stakes were is something Jordan learned after going through some of the ledgers and documents left in the bar.

“They were playing for $2 million, $3 million stakes,” Jordan said. “People came from all over the United States to play high-stakes poker in Wyoming — in the basement of this bar.”

Among artifacts Jordan has found are poker chips ranging from $3.25 all the way up to $1,000 denominations.

“This bar was built in the beginning of 1960, and it was owned by two individuals. One of them finally sold out and the owner who took over, everyone knew him as Les,” Jordan said. “And Les was a pillar for the south side of Cheyenne. This bar and everything that’s been around it. He catered to the people from 1960, until he passed away.”

Changing the bar’s more recent reputation has been priority No. 1, Jordan said.

“We’ve installed lot of cameras in here,” Jordan said. “And they’re all hooked up to facial recognition.”

That ensures that if anyone comes in with an attitude and starts causing trouble, Jordan knows who they are, what they did, and he can ensure they don’t return anytime soon.

“We’ve put in more seating, and it’s not a dance and nightclub anymore,” he said. “It’s back to what it was originally. It’s a dive bar and lounge for the south side.”

To Jordan’s mind, that means catering to the working class.

Dart leagues are getting set up, as well as pool leagues, and Jordan is working on adding what he calls pub grub to the menu.

“We’re going to have those 2-foot-long corn dogs by the end of the year,” he said. “And we’ll be serving nachos and french fries and things like that.”

The package store, meanwhile, has been initialized by both Uber and DoorDash as an official alcohol distributor in Cheyenne.

“There’s only two in Cheyenne that do that now,” Jordan said. “It’s us and another one called the Albany.”

Live Shows

One of the biggest things changing the vibe at the Lamp Lounge are the new shows Jordan has been putting together.

“In fact, we have a huge show tomorrow and it’s almost sold out,” Jordan said Friday. “They’re called ‘Jesters and Jokers,’ and they’re filming their comedy special network for Amazon.”

“Jesters and Jokers” tours across America with a focus on small dive bars so they can interact with local people.

A small venue like Lamp Lounge doing a closed venue is almost unheard of in Cheyenne, Jordan said, but it’s not the first big show the venue has done.

“We just had Olivia Francis here last weekend, and she opens for Billie Eilish and stuff,” Jordan said. “So, we actually have some really big shows here. That’s like our catchphrase, small venue with large shows.”

For Halloween, Jordan is planning a big, three-day community scavenger hunt. Among the items he’s going to have in the hunt will be children’s coats, which will be donated for children in the community who don’t have one.

The prize for the scavenger hunt will include a bottle of Blanton’s, a high-quality expensive bourbon marketed by the Sazerac Co. and is difficult to come by.

A New Meadery

Among the future projects Jordan is working on is a new, small-batch meadery, which he plans to set up in the basement of the Lamp Lounge.

Jordan is a well-known beekeeper and his mead has already won international awards.

“I actually won an international competition working with (a Wyoming brewer) and we made this (braggot) that was called the Sheriff of Nottingham,” he said. “They made a high IPA and then I blended it with a sour cherry mead. It was phenomenal.”

A braggot is a mixture of mead and beer and, after the first one did so well, the Wyoming craft brewers he worked with told Jordan they’d love to do more collaborations.

Everything has been made possible, Jordan said, by fixing what he sees as the basics — a good clean place to come and unwind after work.

“We’ve not even been open for six months and we’ve already turned over the leaf on the building,” he said. “So instead of just trying to maintain it and make margins, now we’re getting ready to do some cool things.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.