Our Far-Flung Correspondent: Cheyenne, WY

Here in the least populous state in the union, where you've got one fifth the population of Chicago spread out over 100,000 square miles, you don't expect to find inventive, upscale, seasonal dining. And so far I haven't. But I did find this really excellent greasy spoon, The Luxury Diner.

I was drawn to the place by the following giant American-Indian?/Woodsman?/Nutcracker?



I'm a sucker for old diners, and though you'd never guess by looking at it, this one claims to be built from an actual 100+ year-old trolley car. I quote, from the menu:

To the best of our knowledge The Luxury Dining Car was an operating trolley car on the streets of Cheyenne from 1896 to 1912. It has been operating as a working diner at this location continuously since 1926.

"To the best of our knowledge--" I love that. Anyway, here's what it looks like on the inside:



They feature "homebaked pies, biscuits, rolls & soups." I can only vouch for the roll and the soup, both of which were excellent (the soup was a pork-heavy white bean). We had diner-standards: turkey club & cheeseburger. Both were very good-- they were fine examples of the genre, though neither really transcended it.





I do have a gripe or two: the place is maybe a little too aware of it's historical specialness-- you can buy Luxury Diner mugs at the cash register, and the wall is covered with a few too many Coca-Cola tchotchke reproductions. And the music they played was... any guesses? Well, good try, but the correct answer was Superhits of the 80s. Our lunch soundtrack included "Physical" by Olivia Newton John, "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head, and "Blame it on the Rain" by Milli Vanilli. I guess that's not so much a beef as it is just kind of befuddling.


Luxury Diner
1401 W Lincolnway
Cheyenne, WY 82001
(307) 638-8971

The interior certainly looks like it was a train car or trolley car -- the curved edges of the ceiling make it look vehicular.

Interesting spot. Thanks for the history and review.

Interesting post, which may be the first, out of 100,00 + from Wyoming. (Which it seems I did not know how to spell )

How did you spell it?

I can't even think of a plausible misspelling...

Mike G wrote:How did you spell it?

I can't even think of a plausible misspelling...

Off enough spell check did not pick up on my intended word.

That's all I'm saying on the subject.