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Expresso Lube liquor license request put on hold

Expresso Lube on W. Lakeway Road. (Ryan Lewallen/County 17)

GILLETTE, Wyo. — The Gillette City Council tabled consideration to approve a new bar and grill liquor license application from JRP Enterprises LLC, doing business as Expresso Lube, after discussion and a public hearing on the matter Tuesday.

JRP Enterprises submitted a completed application to the City Clerk’s Office, which was then reviewed and accepted by the Wyoming Liquor Division.

JRP Enterprises owner Josh Peterson bought Expresso Lube, located at 605 W. Lakeway Road, in July 2023. The business, established in 2010, is unique in that it offers a café with food and drink as well as oil changes for car maintenance. In his letter to the council for the liquor license application, Peterson said there’s a full kitchen and espresso bar.

“If we could get a bar & grill liquor license, we could expand our menu and provide more products,” he wrote. “We have a solid and reliable history in the community.”

Peterson also wrote Expresso Lube has the space, parking and kitchen to meet the requirements of the liquor license.

During discussion on consideration to approve the liquor license, Councilmember Billy Montgomery asked the council to delay making a decision. He asked for “more time to think about it and get some more information.”

Councilmember Tricia Simonson said she was going to suggest the same. She was looking for numbers reflecting revenue to show whether the majority is coming from the business’s food service.

City Attorney Sean Brown said a bar and grill liquor license requires that 60% of revenue come from food or entertainment and not from sale of alcohol. While that’s easy to do in a renewal situation since the financials would show that, it’s more difficult to show when applying for the first time. The state statute puts that burden on the applicant to satisfy the City Council that the criteria can be met.

Peterson and his bookkeeper responded that they have tracked all the food sales, and it would be no issue to supply the council with those numbers.

The state statute does state that entertainment revenues can bolster food revenues to reach that 60% threshold, and the question arose of whether the oil change aspect of the building could count as entertainment.

“So colloquially, I guess you could ask yourself, ‘Is getting an oil change entertainment?'” Brown said. “I’ll talk with them about that.”

“It could be,” Mayor Shay Lundvall said.

“There is a definition for entertainment in the statute as well,” Brown said, instructing the council to make a motion to move the consideration to the first meeting in December, if it was the council’s will.

The vote to move the consideration to December was unanimous.

If approved, the new liquor license would be valid until March 31, 2025, consistent with all other Gillette liquor licenses. JRP Enterprises will need to submit a renewal application to the Clerk’s Office in February of each year.

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