Why People Drive Hours For Chugwater Soda Fountain’s Upscale Supper

CHUGWATER — When she bought Wyoming’s oldest operating soda fountain in Chugwater, Wyoming, people told Jill Winger that a restaurant there would never fly.

“We bought it on the tail end of the pandemic,” Winger said. “And when we took ownership, we had a lot of people saying, ‘Well, that’ll never amount to anything. It’ll be hard to grow a restaurant like that in a tiny town.’”

With so many restaurants at the time shutting down, Winger and her husband Christian decided to play it safe with a burgers and malt concept at Chugwater Soda Fountain. That ultimately did prove popular. So popular they have people come from all over the state for their ranch-raised burgers and huge selection of flavored malts.

Winger still believes the approach was probably just what the business needed to survive through the COVID-19 pandemic. But lately, she has been trying something new at her burger and malt spot in Chugwater. She calls it Supper at the Fountain. 

It’s a bit like a supper club experience, one that harks back to the Prohibition era, with fancy food and drinks. And the once-a-month experience is proving all those one-time naysayers wrong. 

Not only is her new dinner concept drawing a sold-out crowd every month, but it’s a crowd no one could have predicted. Instead of people from southeast Wyoming driving down to Fort Collins or Denver to splurge on a special Friday night dinner, they’re heading instead to Chugwater.

“We’re pulling people in from Denver and Fort Collins, too,” Winger said. “And I know there’s plenty of wonderful places to eat down there.”

Winger thinks the draw is a spirit of adventure. Getting all dressed up and driving into a Wyoming night to an obscure tiny town for a unique, made-from-scratch meal that they literally couldn’t find anywhere else. 

“So, at first glance, the pieces that might seem to be a detriment have ended up being our uniqueness,” Winger said. “It’s really become our secret sauce.”

A Prohibition Backroom Meets Modern Dining Experience

Diners who arrive in Chugwater for Supper at the Fountain will find a place that looks dramatically different by night. 

The diner is cheery and full of sunshine by day, but has a completely different vibe at night, with the lights dimmed, and waiters and waitresses wearing fancy attire that seems entirely compatible with the wild West days of old and Prohibition.

During that time frame, bars often had secret backrooms where they could serve whiskey and cocktails alongside dinner, and that’s definitely the sort of vibe the Soda Fountain is pulling off with its dressed-up nighttime attire.

The lunch counter transforms into a bar, where patrons can sip a Prohibition-era cocktail or two as they await their reserved time for dinner.

“It’s a little bit of a paradox,” Winger said. “Because, historically, soda fountains came about during Prohibition as an answer when bars were shutting down.”

Chugwater’s soda fountain was built in 1914, Winger added, which was right when the soda fountain trend was hitting its apex.

“They became the new social gathering place,” Winger said. “And so that’s also why they started mixing more interesting things into the drinks like cocaine and morphine. They weren’t drinking their alcohol, so they came up with fizzy drinks that had a few add-ins.”

None of the malts or cocktails served today, of course, have such questionable add-ins, Winger assured Cowboy State Daily.

But she and her staff have done a little homework to bring back some of the fun Prohibition-era cocktails.

The most recent menu featured Maiden’s Blush, a classic 1860s cocktail made of gin, lemon, and raspberry, with a hint of mint, and the Velvet Kiss, a chocolate liqueur with vanilla vodka, cherry syrup and heavy cream. They also offer a house wine, customized for them by Vintages in Cheyenne, which offers individuals customized wines by the case. 

It’s a subtle and fun way to play up the history of Chugwater Soda Fountain, the oldest continuously operating soda fountain in the state.

Chuckwagon, Prairie Homestead Cooking Inspired

A big part of the inspiration behind the Supper club is the Soda Fountain’s new chef, George Atchison. He’s a one-time chuckwagon volunteer, who discovered he loved cooking things up for a crowd.

Atchison started selling grab-and-go breakfast burritos at the Tri-County Mercantile across the street from the Soda Fountain. That proved popular enough for him to try pop-up breakfasts at the Soda Fountain.

Seeing how well that was going, one day Winger decided to ask Atchison about managing the Soda Fountain full-time. 

“We had a great summer,” Atchison said. “And I always knew that there was something more we could do, and I wanted more out of it. So, then I talked to Jill about doing supper nights.”

Atchison’s vision for supper nights really appealed to Winger, who had never really given up on the idea of a bonafiderestaurant in Chugwater. 

“I wanted a fine dining aspect to it,” Atchison said. “And she basically just let me off the leash and allowed me to come up with some ideas and float them by her.”

Atchison’s big rule for each supper night is an elegant, delicious meal that can’t be found anywhere else. At the most recent, it was a beef roulade made from skirt steak with mortadella and mozzarella served over a cauliflower puree, with spinach and mushroom gnocchi, roasted broccolini, and chocolate basque cheesecake with a citrus reduction. 

So far, Atchison hasn’t repeated a single recipe. He comes up with something new every time.

“I’ve got a whole library in the office of cookbooks,” Atchison said. “And I’ll see something on Facebook or someone will email me a picture of something and that’s when the creative process begins.”

It sometimes takes Atchison a week or even two weeks to perfect the new dish, and he tries it out on basically everyone who is part of the restaurant before it gets served to the public.

That way he can work out all the kinks, and make sure that it’s something he can prepare in quantity, despite the Soda Fountain’s teeny-tiny kitchen.

“You’ve seen how small our kitchen is,” he said. “There’s only so much we can do out of there.”

But diners would never know these big dishes are coming from a tiny kitchen.

They look more like something a chef from Le Gavroche, where celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was trained. 

Soda Fountain Not For Sale Anymore

For Winger, Supper at the Fountain revitalized her enthusiasm for the business she bought and restored in 2021. It renewed her original vision — an actual restaurant, thriving in the tiny town of Chugwater.

“I love to prove people wrong,” Winger said, chuckling at herself a little bit. “I guess that’s a good motivating factor for me. And I love big, audacious things that people think are impossible.”

Winger credited Atchison’s vision and fresh energy for the change, which has not only rejuvenated her feelings for the business, but the community’s as well.

“There’s fresh excitement from everyone,” she said. “They love coming in and finding out what we’ve come up with. And for the next one, we’re coming up with something kind of crazy. We’re working on beef Wellington, experimenting with that.”

Beef Wellington is a dish even Gordon Ramsay has said is challenging to do well, due to its multiple, time-consuming steps, many of which require precise techniques and timing.

It’s especially challenging to make such a dish in quantity in what is without a doubt one of the world’s tiniest restaurant kitchens. 

“We have a handful of employees, and we have a small kitchen,” Winger said. “So, we have to get really creative.”

The potential for mistakes is huge, as well, but Winger has confidence in Atchison’s skill. Not to mention her own, not inconsiderable skills. She is, after all, a nationally popular social media blogger and her cookbook, “The Prairie Homestead Cookbook,” was an instant bestseller on Amazon.

Winger sees Supper at the Fountain as just a continuation of her efforts to build the community of Chugwater, which she’s come to cherish over the years. 

While she and her husband weren’t that interested in the community when they first came to live there, it’s grown on them over time, and they’ve realized that they want to do more than just live in the town. They want to give back to it, nurture it, and help it grow.

“I wanted to bring some positivity and some life and just good food (to Chugwater),” Winger said. “Because good food brings people together.”

It’s hard to say what the future could hold as a result of drawing so many new people in to Chugwater. But Winger is glad to be part of the magic she sees helping to revitalize a tiny town in Wyoming.

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