When Audrey Bay recently roasted a whole alligator for Mardi Gras at the Aud’s 4-Corners Bar and Grill in Lovell, she loaded the 24-pound reptile onto the big smoker out back, basted it for six hours and served it to a ravenous crowd that picked it clean.
“It’s the first time I ever did it, but everybody loved it,” Bay said. “There was just bones left.”
The alligator was a trial run. Bay is talking about firing up the smoker again this June during Lovell’s marquee summer celebration — a new culinary tradition she hopes one day will accompany the revival of a much older nocturnal one.
For the better part of two years, she has been showing up to town council meetings, trying to talk officials into letting her bar stay open all night the way it used to during the town’s annual end-of-June party.
She hasn’t quite gotten there yet. But she does have a smoker, a supplier and a persuasive track record with reptile meat. So the party is set for a Saturday in June, but it won’t technically achieve all-nighter status.
Open Late
For years, the tradition was a given at Aud’s 4-Corners: Dart tournaments that kicked off at 7 p.m. and ran until 6 the next morning, bands and DJs filling the hours between last call and first light, and patrons who walked out squinting into the sunrise.
Then, about two years ago, the town stopped issuing all-night permits.
“They just took them away from us,” Bay said.
Bay went to work urging the council to bring the tradition back. The council cited vandalism and property destruction as reasons for ending the practice, she said. Bay saw it differently.
“The vandals are the young kids, not people that are at the bars,” she said.
She eventually won a compromise — not a return to the sunrise format, but a two-hour extension from the standard 2 a.m. closing to 4 a.m. It was something, but Bay wants more. The all-nighter wasn’t just tradition, she argued. It was economic survival.
“It’s kind of a cushion for us in the wintertime,” Bay said. “It brings in extra money, and so it’s kind of a cushion for us to fall back on when things are pretty lean.”
Bay said Lovell also now requires her bar to rope off an outdoor beer garden. When officials asked Bay what kind of barrier she planned to install, she zinged back.
“I told them, ‘Well, I’m going to put up barbed wire, because you’re treating us like cattle,” she said.
Town Thinking
Lovell Town Administrator Jed Nebel still savors fond memories of the summer all-nighters.
Nebel’s recollections stretch back 15 or 16 years, when he and his friends would catch the sunrise from the Shoshone Bar, known locally as “the Sho.”
“We walked out at daylight at 6 a.m. when they kicked us out,” Nebel said, who explained the decision to scale back the late-night party permits to 4 a.m. wasn’t driven by any single infamous incident.
“We got to a point, we were understaffed in our law enforcement for the last three years,” Nebel said. “So it’s kind of the point of like, ‘Hey, we’re redoing all of our liquor licenses at the time and we’re understaffed.’ It’s tough to manage that when you’re understaffed for all night.”
Recently, only Aud’s 4-Corners applied for the all-night permit, and only once a year. The permits were going unused, so the council let the provision lapse, he said.
“We got rid of it because it was kind of not being utilized at all,” Nebel said.
Perhaps nostalgia has a way of intensifying once the thing itself disappears.
“Once it went away, people were like, ‘Hey, wait a second, that was kind of fun,’” Nebel said.
Bay showed up to meetings and made her case. The compromise landed at 4 a.m., with all patrons cleared out by 5 a.m.
The permit was pinned to June so no single bar could claim it for another date and leave the rest without coverage during the town celebration, he said.
“She pushed for it and came to every meeting through it all, and we came to a good understanding on that,” Nebel said.
Naming Rights
Lovell’s summer celebration itself is undergoing a makeover. In state records, it has long been listed as Lovell Mustang Days. But according to Linda Morrison, manager of the Lovell Area Chamber of Commerce, a volunteer committee is pushing to rename it.
“Our little group of workers are saying they just really like Lovell to have their own name, which would be Lovell Days,” Morrison said.
Whether the possessive apostrophe belongs — Lovell’s Days versus Lovell Days — remains an apparently spirited open question.
“This is the hard part, because we have disagreements,” Morrison said. “Renaming anything is a difficult task, because everybody will always call it Mustang Days.”
The celebration unfolds in late June, anchored by the Follies — two nights of local talent at the Hyart Theatre, a historic venue that seats a thousand. The Dollies, a beloved local dance troupe, headline alongside variety acts and the Mustang Band.
“In two nights, there’s 2,000 people that are just at the Follies,” Morrison said. “Nobody wants to miss it.”
Morrison also shared news that a restaurant called The Overlook is coming to town, on the corner by the stoplight. The first phase involved demolishing an old building, and the owners are now working through permits. Morrison called it a homegrown venture, not a chain.
“It’s going to be a place that folks will want to come as a destination,” Morrison said. “It’s just to add to what we have here.”
Collaborative Design Architects posted on social media that The Overlook’s design, “Celebrates the stunning landscapes of the surrounding areas, with a modest nod to aviation & travel. Guests will be able to enjoy a sophisticated dining experience in the lounge or a relaxed, family-oriented meal in the restaurant, all while soaking in the charm of Wyoming’s scenery.”
Legal Daylight
If The Overlook ever decides it wants to remain open past 2 a.m., they will reach out to local authorities, which have always held a lot of sway over how late parties can go on main streets around the state.
The statute used to specify business hours as 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., but locals could carve out exceptions.
Then about six years ago, the 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. provision was removed as part of an omnibus revisions bill, according to Mike Moser, executive director of the Wyoming State Liquor Association.
“There is none,” Moser said of the current statewide restriction on operating hours.
The change was driven less by a desire to enable all-night revelry than by a need to eliminate inconsistencies between cities and their surrounding counties.
In Laramie County, for example, Cheyenne’s Sunday hours had been 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., while the surrounding county allowed service from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Patrons simply drove to where the drinks were still flowing.
“When we removed that out of statute, everybody pretty much went with uniform hours, and usually it’s 6 to 2,” Moser said.
But the removal also left the door wide open for around-the-clock alligator roasts and other fun ways to hoot with the owls.
Any municipality or county can now permit extended dusk-until-dawn service for special events. The Hulett Ham & Jam is known for going pretty late in August during the Sturgis motorcycle rally. And the Byron Bar throws an all-nighter during Byron Days in July.
“I think every little town around here has an all nighter,” said Bay at 4-Corners.
Moser said the state, “Recognized the ability for cities and counties to determine what was best for their community rather than having state guidelines.”
Large cities like Cheyenne and Casper have never embraced the option.
“We don’t support or oppose it,” Moser said. “We just support the idea that cities and counties have that ability.”
The state’s top liquor regulatory official confirmed that Wyoming law — Title 12 to be exact — contains no specific provision for all-nighters.
“General alcohol sales and service hours may be set under local laws as determined by the local licensing authority,” said Jason Allen, regulatory compliance manager for the Wyoming Department of Revenue’s Liquor Division.
Allen told Cowboy State Daily, “There are no liquor license or permit types authorized under Title 12 that explicitly allow for alcohol sales or service ‘sunrise to sunrise,’ therefore no requirements exist within state law for such circumstances.”
Sometime in April, Bay said she will approach the Lovell Town Council and request this year’s late-night permit. Those craving smoked alligator and a 4 a.m. last call should mark their calendars for June 27.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
