A Rock Springs restaurant is celebrating the New Year in a unique way — breathing deeply without gagging.
The locally owned Wild Mustang Restaurant finally found the source of a foul-smelling odor that permeated the place since it opened just over a year ago.
After multiple tests and infrastructure replacements, a team of motivated people finally identified and resolved the problem.
“It was a problem in this building even before we opened,” said William Tucker, the front-of-house manager at the Wild Mustang. “Some people said the smell would never go away and wished us luck.
"This time, we did not rely on luck. We relied on relentless effort and worked to come up with a solution.”
Now when giving directions to the place, people can say to look out for the life-sized gold mustang out front instead of telling their friends to just “follow your nose."
Came With The Place
The Wild Mustang is situated in a 40-year-old building along Dewar Drive in Rock Springs.
Even after a full remodel of the interior, everyone noticed a pernicious, pungent odor inside after the place opened in October 2024.
“It wasn’t too bad at the beginning, so we thought it might have been something lingering from the previous owners,” Tucker said. “But no. After it got worse, we realized it was still a problem.”
After multiple patrons and employees reported the smell, the management team worked diligently to trace it to its source.
They checked everything they could think of, but all to no avail.
“We realized we had to call professionals,” Tucker said.
Found The Smell
The Wild Mustang team called in professionals who tested the building for air and gas leakages, along with the locally owned Vaughn’s Plumbing and Heating Co.
After rigorous testing, they discovered the solution to their problem had been way over everybody’s heads.
The ventilation system on the building's roof had a section of cast-iron pipe. Over the four decades since it was built, the pipes had corroded and collapsed.
“When we purchased the building, we paid attention to the floor,” Tucker said. “The problem was that the ventilation pipe on the roof was corroded and clogged by flakes of cast iron, so the ventilation for the sewage was cycling back into the restaurant.”
Tucker confirmed that six ventilation pipes in the ceiling and on the roof were completely replaced this week, including the problematic cast iron pipe.
Everyone now can literally smell the difference.
“It had absolutely nothing to do with the cleanliness of the building,” he said. “We keep a very clean establishment. It was a 40-year-old ventilation issue, and we finally found the problem.”
Savory, Not Smelly
Hazel Locke is a regular at the Wild Mustang.
She said the new-and-improved restaurant “smells gorgeous,” although she wasn’t deterred by the smell before because the food is so good.
“I eat here every day or every other day,” she said while enjoying breakfast on Friday morning. “It’s gorgeous.”
Tucker said the Wild Mustang offers an all-day breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu, with monthly specials.
The first special of 2026 is spud crackers, a “mouthwatering” Idaho potato smashed and twice-fried, served with a tangy dipping sauce, he said.
“We just came out with the Breadwinner, a bread bowl made fresh in-house, filled with soup and put in the cheese melter,” he said. “If we can make it homemade in this restaurant, we do that, and we do it with integrity.”
Tucker wants Rock Springs residents to know that the pungent problem permeating the Wild Mustang last year, which many believed would never go away, is gone for good.
People can savor the taste and smell of their meals now that they’ve cleared the air inside — delicious and odor-free.
“We’re starting 2026 with no more band-aids, sprays, or cover-ups,” he said. “We found the source of the unwanted smell and fixed it once and for all.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
