Get An Oil Change And Lunch At Gillette’s Expresso Lube, But Not A Beer

Mizz Tina says the breakfast she ate at Expresso Lube in Gillette while waiting for her vehicle to be serviced was actually quite good. It’s a spot she would consider going to even if she wasn’t getting an oil change.

Hers is one of many positive reviews on Tripadvisoe and is the kind of feedback that had Expresso Lube owner Josh Peterson thinking of how he could build up the restaurant side of his business by enhancing what it has to offer.

Namely, he wants a liquor license from the city.

“We’re looking to stay open longer,” Peterson told Cowboy State Daily. “And I think the liquor will just bring more people in to kind of sit and mingle, instead of just oil change people. I think there’s more growth on that side than what we have on the oil change side.”

That prompted him to take the unusual step of seeking a liquor license for his cafe. But the request so flummoxed the Gillette City Council, it was tabled to give the members more time to consider whether mixing oil and liquor is a sound business idea.

Ultimately, they unanimously denied it this week on a 5-0 vote.

Is An Oil Change Entertaining?

Gillette City Attorney Sean Brown told Cowboy State Daily the issues he researched are twofold when it comes to Wyoming liquor license laws and a business like Expresso Lube.

Expresso Lube is operating as a single business that primarily does oil changes and has a small cafe. The type of license they seek is for a bar and grill.

To qualify for that, Brown said, the business needs to show that a majority of its revenue — at least 60% — comes from the sale of food and/or entertainment. 

If most of the business’ income comes from oil changes, that leads to the tongue-in-cheek question about whether oil changes are entertaining.

“So, there’s a question as to whether a business like that qualifies as a restaurant under Wyoming law,” Brown said.

The other less tangible issue for the City Council is the impact of issuing a particular liquor license on public welfare.

It would still be illegal for a customer to climb into a vehicle while inebriated and drive away, but are members of the public being set up to fail, given that oil changes are supposed to last 20 or so minutes?

That’s admittedly a judgment call, Brown said, but he pointed out that at most restaurants, the typical time spent is more like an hour, which is more time for the effects of alcohol to wear off than a 20-minute oil change offers.

This isn’t the first time Gillette has been asked to consider an innovative liquor license request, Brown added. A gas station recently requested a liquor license, and one of the items on its menu was an alcoholic slushie to go. 

That raised some concerns for the liquor license, and the council ultimately was not comfortable with the idea of spiked slushies to go, Brown said.

It’s Not About Getting Looped While Getting Lubed

Peterson said he doesn’t buy the idea that the short timeframe of an oil change is the problem some are making it out to be.

As the business owner, he’s not interested in people getting looped while they get their vehicles lubed at his place.

“I read some of that on Facebook,” Peterson said. “I don’t know if that’s (the council’s) thinking or not, but most people do drive themselves to the bar.”

That stay at the bar doesn’t have to last an hour either, he pointed out. It could even be shorter than a 20-minute oil change, if someone decides to down a few shots in a row and then leave.

Peterson said he bought Expresso Lube 18 months ago from his former father-in-law, Dave Dorson, who built the business in 2010. It’s always had a café attached to it, so that’s really a new idea.

The Food

So far, Peterson hasn’t made many changes to the café, which is similar to the kind of fare one might expect at a coffee shop.

There are creative specialty coffee drinks with names like Spark Plug, Crankshaft and Defroster. And there are acai bowls named things like Super Bee, Monkey Wrench and Jump Start.

From there, the menu gets a little heartier than typical coffee shop fare. There are French toast sticks, sunrise scramblers, biscuits and gravy, as well as a selection of breakfast sandwiches and paninis.

The lunch menu includes a range of paninis from Reubens to southwest turkey or Dijon ham, but also includes things like french fries, mozzarella sticks, pickle chips and mushrooms, as well as fried chicken sandwiches. 

Kids can choose from mac and cheese and mini corndogs. 

As it stands right now, Peterson feels the restaurant is integral to the business, so he won’t close it just because the liquor license was denied.

But the restaurant is barely on the edge of breaking even, so he’s still hoping for ways to change that. He had seen getting a liquor license as one way to expand that side of the business and make it more profitable.

“The bars in town, you can’t really go and sit down to have a meeting with someone,” he said. “So that’s kind of what we were looking at, is just being a place where people could come in and talk and have a beer.”

Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com

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