After 100 Years, Cavalryman Steakhouse Closes, Moves To Special Events Model

Fabian Corona at the historic Cavalryman’s Steakhouse in Laramie commemorated the restaurant’s last night of regular service with a burger he calls The Dishwasher Special.

The burger has two 10-ounce patties of beef topped with parmesan, cheddar, goat, gruyere and blue cheeses and then sprinkled with bacon bits — only after all the cheeses are nice and gooey.

“This is something I made up one day,” Corona explained. “I was basically just really hungry one day, so I did a double instead of a single burger, and then I just put the toppings on it that I wanted.”

The burger became an everyday item for him at the restaurant where he worked as a dishwasher. A secret menu item known only to himself and a few friends. 

Corona won’t be washing any more dishes for the Cavalryman’s steakhouse or making any more Dishwasher Specials, though, because the restaurant is celebrating its 100th anniversary by shutting down its regular Thursday through Sunday service. From here on out, the historic restaurant will only be open for special occasions like holidays, weddings, football games and the like.

That may seem like an odd way to celebrate such a milestone, but that’s how it is framed in a Facebook post the restaurant made on its page. The notice also doubled as the business’ notice to its employees that their employment situation was about to change.

 We Are Family

Tatum Zimmerman has worked at the Cavalryman’s Steakhouse for three years and told Cowboy State Daily there were a few tears when she saw the post and realized that she probably wouldn’t have her job at the restaurant anymore.

Working at the Cavalryman Steakhouse has been great, she said, and the bonding experience there has created many friendships outside of work. 

“Everybody read it, and we had to read it like 10 times to make sure that’s really what was going on,” she said. “Because we hadn’t heard anything about it.”

While the post did prompt a few people to quit, Zimmerman was among those who decided to stay to the very end and see what the future might hold after that. The business will still need servers for its ad hoc special events, she reasoned, and she hopes to be part of that — if everything works out for her schedule once she has a new steady job.

The changes to the restaurant’s business model seemed to come about as traffic to the restaurant dwindled over the years, employees told Cowboy State Daily.

“I know a lot of people come here just to celebrate things because they want to go somewhere fancy,” Corona said. “But, pretty much, things to celebrate don’t happen super often.”

The restaurants limited hours and its out-of-the-way location outside of town were other factors that employees believe contributed to less and less traffic, despite a great, one-of-a-kind menu and atmosphere.

The Steaks Couldn’t Be Beat

One of the things that Corona and several of the other employees at the restaurant said they particularly loved about the Cavalryman Steakhouse was the menu, which they felt beat Rib and Chop House, the only other high-end steakhouse in town, on both price and creativity. 

The menu included, in addition to some of the just plain steak and chicken dishes that one might find at a Rib and Chop, several that were quite unique to the restaurant. Like the Rough Rider, a delicious and decadent concoction with tenderloin medallions, layered with organic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus, then topped with diced lobster, crab, and shrimp, and smothered in fresh Chimichurri sauce. Or the Rough Rider Throwback, which swaps steak for bison medallions, and potatoes for sweet potatoes.

There was also the Cattleman’s Turf and Turf, a blackened 10-ounce prime rib cooked medium well and topped with Rocky Mountain oysters, alongside sautéed vegetables and an organic baked potato stuffed with butter and sour cream.

Steaks weren’t the only special item on the menu. There was also orange-glazed roasted duck breast, braised lamb shank, and the KarroKampos pie, a shepherd’s pie with lamb, green beans, organic carrot and onion, in a red-wine gravy, topped with organic mashed potatoes. It was created to honor Wyoming’s Basque sheepherders.

Corona planned to take home a few of his favorite recipes, like for the fry seasoning and the soda bread, a recipe recorded by a pioneer Laramie mother more than a century ago. The latter was featured on Food Network early this year.

The cocktail menu also featured several originals, curated and created by Zimmerman and Front of the House Manager Chloe Zinsmeister.

“We named the drinks after locations in Laramie or Wyoming that represent the state,” Zinsmeister said. “So that was a lot of fun. And I like the Calamity Jane, which is a huckleberry drink.”

The new menus for special events will likely be streamlined, Zinsmeister said, and the first one has already been set. It’s a Sweethearts banquet for Feb. 14 and will be by reservation only. 

Other special events might include “throwback” nights using old menus and servers who are dressed for the time period, or things like Chef Tables and Community Dinners.

An online pamphlet says that Keystone Hall will become an in-house community hall. Hosting live music, local events, and family-friendly activities on a walk-in basis starting in March, while the Fort Sanders Event Center will open sometime in February as a space to host meetings and celebrations. 

Catering will continue to be offered at special events across the region.

History Hangs On The Walls

There’s a picture of Calamity Jane hanging on the wall of the Cavalryman Steakhouse, one of dozens that showcase Wyoming history. Calamity Jane is joined by photos of mountain men like Jim Bridger, frontiersman Buffalo Bill Cody, outlaws like Butch Cassidy, dignitaries like Esther Hobart Morris, America’s first justice of the peace, and suffragette Louisa Ann Swain. Swain, a Laramie resident, who was the first woman in an American state to cast a vote in a general election since New Jersey took away its women’s right to vote in 1807. 

There are also historic pictures of Laramie figures and Laramie places from times gone by, including several of Fort Sanders, which is where the Cavalryman Steakhouse now resides. 

Fort Sanders was constructed in 1866 to protect travelers on the nearby Overland Trail from Native American attacks. 

Originally named Fort John Buford, it was renamed Fort Sanders after General William P. Sanders, who died at the Siege of Knoxville during the American Civil War.

The Fort eventually got a new mission along with a new name, protecting Union Pacific Railroad workers in the spring of 1868.

After the railroad was finished and Fort D.A. Russell in Cheyenne was built, Fort Sanders became less and less important. Finally, in 1882, its buildings were sold off.

Only two of its structures remain, one, on the west side of Highway 287 was a guard house. The other, a storehouse for ammunition, was on the east side of the highway, just south of the Cavalryman Steakhouse, which sits where the 400 x 200-foot parade grounds used to be. The ruins of the fort’s powder keg are also still visible to the southwest of the restaurant.

The Place Where Cowboy Joe Liked To Chill

Salvaged logs from the decommissioned forts Collins and Halleck were used to build the barracks and the kitchen at Fort Sanders, as well as the officer’s quarters, which were on the southeast side of the parade grounds.

The steakhouse itself was built in 1925 as a clubhouse for the local country club, which included a golf course. The remnants of the nine-hole golf course still remain.

Zinsmeister told Cowboy State Daily she’s been told the area where the Cavalryman Steakhouse’s kitchen is now used to be a swimming pool. 

“I’m not sure if that was just like a joke,” she said. “But a lot of the stuff, like our fireplace and the floors, are original.”

Some of the photos on the wall, meanwhile, have captured golfing clubhouse history, and they are a hoot to look at. 

The clubhouse was purchased in 1970 by Robert and Betty Gerard, who founded the Cavalryman Supper Club. They quickly won a great reputation as a western steakhouse for as long as they owned it.

A group of investors purchased the restaurant in 2005 to modernize and revitalize the business. Ken King, the managing partner, was able to buy out the investors in 2012.

Several letters on the wall from various dignitaries, including then-Senator Al Simpson, paint a picture of a robust steakhouse, one where Laramie and tourists just loved to come and celebrate.

“I can’t count the innumerable great times that I (we!) have had there,” Simpson wrote. “There were family parties, UW parties, and parties with my U.S. Senate staff when we would have our staff meetings Laramie — also times with friends and constituents over a long period of time.

“And even though it began to fall into disrepair, it was always great to come in there after a game and crack a bottle of wine and have a good chunk of steak or seafood amid a riotous conglomeration of ‘Cowboy Joe Types!’” Simpson continued. “It seemed to convey the essence of Laramie and its history and many warm memories come to mind as I reflect on those enjoyable and spirited times there.”

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