When celebrity chef Vincent Fiore packed up his knives and left The Restaurant at The Wagon Box in Story, Wyoming, he left behind more than a darkened kitchen.
His sudden exit highlights a fractured relationship between property owner Paul McNiel and members of the local community who are still spooked by whatever they think is happening at the Wagon Box.
McNiel told Cowboy State Daily he believes Fiore and his business partner were pushed into closing the restaurant by a “dedicated” contingent of “haters and losers” in Story who are constantly dogging anyone associated with the restaurant.
The stress of that, piled onto an already difficult task of running a successful full-time restaurant in a town of 900, was just too much for Fiore, he said.
Fiore, meanwhile, acknowledged that tension.
He told Cowboy State Daily that some in the community thought he was some kind of “front man” for McNiel, even though he was just trying to run a restaurant.
Buyout Deal Collapsed
But Fiore also said he doesn’t believe maintaining a successful restaurant is compatible with McNiel’s overall vision for the property, which includes hosting unconventional gatherings, such as the Doomer Optimism Campout or the Homesteading Symposium.
The latter included discussion of the “Pilgrim Republic” and “near term and intergenerational strategies to cultivate the social, economic and political structures that shape our lives.”
Such events killed a potential buyout for the property, Fiore said.
“Paul was always nice to me, that’s one thing I have to say,” Fiore said. “He really was. But his vision was different than mine.”
Fiore and his investors wanted to market the property through the Dude Ranchers Association to attract a different clientele, one he said would have been put off by such avant-garde, edgy discussions about the future.
“I had presented investors who wanted to buy the property, and he wanted to sell the front half, not the back,” Fiore said. “They were afraid that he would take the money for the front and build his doomsday community in the back. So, they bailed out. They didn’t want to do it.”
Wrong Foot From Start
McNiel previously told Cowboy State Daily he bought the Wagon Box because he wanted a place where dreamers, writers, philosophizers and the like could come together and discuss interesting ideas.
They weren’t always ideas he agreed with; he just thought that they’d be interesting and inspiring.
The Doomer Optimism Camp held in June, for example, was billed on the Wagon Box website as a venue for “independent-minded folks” to discuss “new political realities” and to “imagine again the meaning of Liberty.”
Public criticism, though, started before McNiel even opened the Wagon Box, while he was still restoring it. Members of the community discovered plans on his Wagon Box website for a digital timeshare through one of Wyoming’s newly created LLCs for digital assets, called a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO.
People didn’t know what a DAO was, and they had questions. About that same time, an article in Vanity Fair added fuel to a growing fire.
The article described McNiel as part of the “dissident fringe” where the “new right meets the far left” and everyone’s expecting an “apocalypse.”
Quotes in the story, which McNiel later said were taken out of context, did not help quell the rising tension. McNiel voluntarily hosted a town hall that attracted hundreds of community members worried that the new Wagon Box owner's plans would fundamentally change the character of Story.
After that, McNiel told the crowd he would not pursue a DAO structure for his business after all, and he expressed willingness to work with the community to better fit in.
He also told them the business was millions in the red and was never about making money. He just had a dream of a place where thinkers could go and debate ideas, and he thought a place called Story would be perfect for that.
“I’ve always thought about community building and getting my friends together for conversations and discussions and whatever,” he said, later adding, “My idea of the whole project is basically that it would be no different in terms of infrastructure than what it’s already designed for.”
Over time, he’d hoped a digital “club” mentality would encourage repeat visitors who would get to know and love Story and the Wagon Box. He was also looking for investors who could help with this multi-million-dollar project.
Novelty Wears Off
Hopes were initially high both from McNiel, the community and Fiore that an “Italy meets Wyoming” concept at the Wagon Box would thrive.
Fiore is a celebrity chef and television personality. He discovered the Wagon Box opportunity while in the Cowboy State to film “Cookin With Cowboys,” a PBS series.
His hopes seemed justified. The restaurant easily attracted sold-out crowds in the beginning, and many online Facebook reviews raved about what Fiore was doing.
“He did great in the winter,” McNiel said. “But it’s a tough gig. I could crap talk him, but at the end of the day, I do think he tried hard. And early on, he was extremely successful. I mean his slowest day was busier than my busiest day before he got there.”
But, over time, “novelty wears off,” McNiel added.
“There is a dedicated cadre who are just absolutely dedicated to being haters and losers,” he said. “Once they got onto (Fiore), it’s no fun. And it might be a minority, but nobody else speaks up, so it sounds like a majority.”
McNiel added that the “haters” have become so dedicated they’ve made “cowards” of many others.
“No one pushes back,” he said. “They’ll message you privately and say, ‘Oh I feel so bad for everything you’re putting up with online. But they’ll never just post online and back you up.”
Fiore might have made some “unforced errors,” McNiel said, but he said the constant “swarm of armchair quarterbacks” criticizing everything at the Wagon Box underlies all the reasons Fiore gave for packing it in.
“Man it looked good there for a minute, didn’t it?” McNiel said with a sigh.
Community Questions
While McNiel blames a persistent contingent of “haters” and online trolls for the restaurant’s struggles, others in the community have suggested he is glossing over legitimate concerns people have had — and some still have — with his plans for a much-loved, historic property.
Story is an unincorporated community about 20 minutes south of Sheridan. With its views of the Big Horn Mountains, it has been a favored retreat since its establishment in 1901.
The Wagon Box has existed for more than 100 years and is considered legendary by many of its residents. They tell stories about how it once hosted big bands to entertain wealthy East Coasters in the '20s and '30s.
Given that kind of history, McNiel’s initial business model felt off-putting to many who either live or own property in Story. They feared McNiel’s idea of a digital timeshare would change the community’s culture.
It also raised questions about who would enforce laws and standards.
“I’m not anti-DAO,” property owner Alison Gee told Cowboy State Daily in a 2023 interview. “I think it’s cool and interesting. But I’m anti-DAO for landownership in Wyoming under the current structure. I don’t think it’s good for the state of Wyoming if all of the beautiful places in the state can be sold off in digital tokens.”
Former state representative Tyler Lindholm countered that all the state’s usual laws still apply to a DAO. In fact, setting up a Wyoming DAO actually imposes more stringent rules.
“This guy, this group has actually put themselves into more of a liability by registering,” Lindholm said. “Because now they’ve identified who they are … it definitely provides more capability for the community to hold them accountable.”
Economics In A Small Town
While many of the conflicts between McNiel and the community have since been mitigated, some in the community still view the Wagon Box’s new owner and his plans with suspicion.
The failure to win them over adds an edge to already sharp economics for tiny towns and their restaurants.
Former Sheridan Mayor Dave Kinsky told Cowboy State Daily the failure rates for restaurants in tiny towns are “alarmingly high.”
“The reality of it is, people no longer take a drive out to the countryside to some nice rural restaurant for a leisurely dinner and then a drive back to town,” he said. “The cars are stacked 15 deep at McDonald’s or Starbucks because people don’t want to walk 10 yards to have a fast-food meal or a $7 fluffy coffee chino. No way they’re going to drive out to the countryside for a meal.”
Kinsky added he has lots of friends in Story, including some family members.
“I find it to be a community of good solid, generally supportive people,” he said. “But it is a very small community. If people turned out en masse, I don’t know that there’s enough of them to really make a restaurant prosperous.”
In his opinion, the Wagon Box Restaurant failure is likely the same reason every prior operator at the location has failed, even before McNiel owned it.
“The economic conditions for success for a restaurant, in this day and age, in that location, are not there,” he said. “And yet, hope springs eternal. There are facilities all across rural ares that back in the day were swinging places.”
But that was before apps and the Internet, he added.
“Back before total house HVAC and television took over, people would get out of the house and take a drive from town for dinner in some adjoining little rural burg,” he said. “Those days are long gone, but the restaurants still stand.”
The buildings sit vacant until someone with a dream and some money takes over, Kinsky said.
“(They’re) convinced that somehow they can defy all the odds,” he said. “That they will outrun the history of that facility and a long string of failed restauranteurs.”
Might Sell Out
McNiel said after losing so much money at the location and dealing with so much constant criticism, he’s looking at other options for the venue. Those range from a new restaurant manager to a new owner for the entire location.
“There are some people who have reached out who are interested running it,” he said. “I’m looking at options for selling the whole shooting match. Or I might just run it like I’ve been running it, and stop catering to the locals.”
Lots of people who have come before him have lost money at the restaurant, he added.
“I have done my darnedest to keep it open for four years,” he said. “At a substantial financial loss. At a substantial mental and emotional loss, just to be shrieked at and spat upon by neighbors — who I’ve gone out of my way to be nice to, who I’ve done nothing negative to.
“So I don’t feel like I owe them anything, In fact, they owe me an apology and a thank you.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
