Chugwater, Wyoming

[Dave Feldman]

Have any Chowhounds visited this town and tried the fare at Chugwater Soda Fountain? In particular, I'm interested in the chili from Chugwater Chili Corp. (which is served there) but also anything else you've tried there.

[Melanie Wong]

Dave, I made a point of visiting Chugwater, population 244, on my brief visit to Wyoming to see and taste for myself. A little more to say than the recent NY Times article.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5938921099/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/us/03outhere.html

The annual festival was a couple weeks earlier. I passed by the Chugwater Chili Corp.’s headquarters heading into town.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5939412158/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5938857809/

But my target was the Chugwater Soda Fountain, the oldest operating soda fountain in the state.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5938858693/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5938859071/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5939414528/

I went inside to take a seat at the fountain’s historic counter. There’s also shaded seating outdoors, the future site of a beer garden.

Since I’d just had lunch in Cheyenne at the Bread Basket Bakery, I tried to order a small half-and-half order of the Chugwater Chili and Green Chili, just to have a taste. Amber asked her grandmother about this, but they didn’t think it would work in a bowl. Instead a sample of each was offered to me as a complimentary tasting for my introduction to Wyoming style chili. Quite different from red chili from Texas or green in New Mexico.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5938920971/

The red is made with Chugwater Chili Co's spice blend and included ground beef and as well as tomatoes and beans, which would be heretical to a Texan. I found it quite mild in heat yet flavorful with herbs and spices including the cumin influence mentioned above, but dominated by tomatoes rather than chile pepper. I bought a small container of the Chugwater Chili spice blend to take home as a souvenir and the ingredient listing says, “Red chili powder, salt, masa harina (corn flour), onion powder, garlic powder, brown sugar, and six other spices. No MSG added.” Over the balance of my time in Wyoming I would try three other examples of red chili, and I liked Chugwater’s the best of them. This had a bit more brightness, although that might be from the brand of canned tomatoes in the concoction, and just a little more depth.

The green chili was in a whitish, vaguely yellow-tinged base with a few pieces of spicy green chili pepper and there was no meat in my sample. It was only a couple shades darker than the white chili I’d eaten in Cheyenne and flecked with orangey bits that might have been carrot. This had more spicy heat to it but the overall effect was monotonal. Unlike New Mexico where green chili is actually green in color and composed of green chile peppers as the main ingredient, I’d learn that Wyoming and Colorado have a different idea.

Wendall the Elk over the counter kept an eye on me as I sampled.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniewong/5938860733/

I ordered a chocolate malt . . . and requested that it be made with chocolate ice cream, not just vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup. The fluid milk and ice cream are Meadow Gold, a brand I haven’t seen in California in decades. He substituted as I asked and blended a very thick and extra malty shake. Sweet! I didn’t have time to linger or I would have asked for it in a fountain glass rather than a to-go cup for the full experience.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniew...

When my dad was in high school, he worked as a soda jerk at the local pharmacy and soda fountain in the town where I was born. Later he would return after college to be the pharmacist there and to meet the shy, banana split-loving girl who would become his wife. With that family history, Chugwater Soda Fountain tugged on a great deal of nostalgia for me. Yet, I think it’s still worth a stop if you’re passing through for a real chocolate malt and to try Wyoming-style chili.

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Chugwater Soda Fountain
314 1st St, Chugwater, WY 82210

[Dave Feldman]

It took almost five years, but finally we have a first-person report. I hope to get to Chugwater myself. In the little town where I went to college, the soda fountain at the drugstore was a water cooler for the whole town. In a town as small as Chugwater, it must be even more important.

[Melanie Wong]

Now it's your turn to visit, Dave. Chugwater was my stop in-between Cheyenne and Fort Laramie on the way to my overnight in Torrington. It does definitely function as a gathering place for the town (the liquor store next door packs 'em in), and many travelers like me stopped in for a cold beverage and ice cream.

[wyogal]

NIce!

[Melanie Wong]

Reports?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/us/03outhere.html

http://www.chugwatersodafountain.com/

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Chugwater Soda Fountain
314 1st St, Chugwater, WY 82210

[KCJ]

You've got to get your friends better trained, Dave.

[Dave Feldman]

I'm afraid I was asking for friends, who went through town and felt shame and remorse for not sampling the chili.

[KCJ]

SO, Dave, did you make it to Chugwater to check out the chili or are you waiting for the Chili Cookoff in June? Surely they'll run a bridge tournament in conjunction with that cookoff, don't you think?

Now you've got me curious. Next time I head out to Idaho, guess I'll have to turn right in Cheyenne and go check out the soda fountain. I'm a sucker for malts (extra malt, please!).

[ClaireWalter]

I wonder whether there's any connection beween a good chili place in town and the annual chili cookoff held in Chugwater each June.

[melly]

Sorry for taking so long...maybe you've already been.

When I ate there the chili was little chunks of beef and the sauce was med hot and was reddish brown. I could taste cumin and cayenne..garlic and pepper. I thought it needed a little salt. No beans when I ate it.

[melly]

Being from Wyo...and having stopped in Chugwater for the chili, I must say that I enjoyed it very much (but not as much as my husbands).

[Dave Feldman]

Thanks for the reply, Melly. Can you describe what the chili is like?

[Gary Soup]

Why don't you take one for the team, Dave?

[Dave Feldman]

I'd be delighted. Some friends of mine stumbled onto the place and were rhapsodic about the fountain and I was wondering if their impressions were based more on nostalgia than substance.