Medicine Bow shuts doors after bankruptcy

Medicine Bow shuts doors after bankruptcy

Dennis E. Curran

Business Report Wyoming Bureau
CHEYENNE — Cheyenne˜s first brewpub has closed its doors, though its owners are hopeful the downtown pub and restaurant can be sold to a new owner.
The Medicine Bow Brewing Co. formally closed early New Year˜s Day after a party that was partly to welcome a new year but also to say good-bye to a friendly downtown gathering place that had become something of an institution since its opening amidst great fanfare in April 1995 in a renovated former auto garage.
"We˜re still hoping to sell it," said Medicine Bow president Larry Sortor on the last day of business. "We have some people who are interested but no firm offers yet."
Medicine Bow Brewing Co.˜s parent, Rocky Mountain Brewing Co., filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Cheyenne April 28, noting that the restaurant and pub˜s debts had grown faster than revenues during the slower winter months. The company listed assets of $812,338 and liabilities of $960,967.
Sortor noted after the filing that rumors of the brewpub˜s financial difficulty hurt and forced the decision to reorganize under federal bankruptcy laws, but the restaurant reorganized its management and staff, changed its menu and began advertising itself as a family restaurant through the summer and fall.
The strategy worked at first, but then patronage began to drop again, especially the dinner and weekend crowd, Sortor said, adding that business really dropped off during downtown street reconstruction last fall.
"When they tore up all of downtown and made it impossible to get here, we knew we weren˜t going to be able to make it through January and February," he told The Business Report.