Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

THERMOPOLIS – It took four long years in the making plus a lot of hard work to open the Raptors Grill and Pub, a family restaurant, located in the old A&W building in Thermopolis. Raptors Grill and Pub officially opened Dec. 26, 2017, and is owned and operated by Tony Nettles and Julie Lehman.

"We bought this building four years ago and we've gutted it from the floor to the roof. We jack hammered out all the concrete. We built all the floors. We had to build a fire wall across the approaches of the bowling alley because the building was too big. We have a new roof, new walls, new floors, new plumbing and new wiring. The plumbing was collapsed, we did everything. There are a few [original] walls that are left and they should have probably been torn down," Lehman said.

In spite of all the obstacles the couple had to deal with, they created a family restaurant that appeals to both child and adult alike. Walking into the establishment the first sight that a patron sees is a café style counter with a flying dinosaur hovering above. To the right is a raptor breaking through the wall and another one breaking through the wall across the dining room. A balcony contains a variety of dinosaurs looking down at diners.

"We love kids, so if we make them happy, that's going to make mom and dad happy. We have coloring pages for the kids when they come in and we have toy dinosaurs for them when they leave. We have a list of kids drinks; dinosaur roar, raptor drool [and more] in fancy glasses and blend them and put cherries on top. We want the kids to feel special," Lehman said. "We want this to be the restaurant that kids want to go to," she added.

The pub is located in the back of the establishment past the restrooms, part of the restaurant but also separate and includes a fully stocked bar, dining room for adults only, a video game and a pool table.

Lehman stated that Raptors basically serves burgers, sandwiches, salads, appetizers and wraps, called wraptors, with talk about expanding the menu to include steaks, prime rib and specialty nights like Mexican night sometime in the future. But the priority right now is to tweak the menu so that there is complete consistency.

Lehman explained that they are keeping the prices as low as possible with Nettles spending all day comparison shopping finding other places to get their food from besides the food service trucks that normally truck the food in. "We are doing the best that we can to keep the cost down, this is an older community and its limited income and we want to make it so that the whole community can afford to come here," she added.

In the month the restaurant has been open the Raptors Grill and Pub Facebook page has been filled with rave reviews about the quality of food and service. Lehman stated that her daughter Kate is responsible for the quality service with Nettles and Liam Kautz, the kitchen manager, being responsible for the food quality. Both Kate and Kautz, along with a friend, moved to Thermopolis from Cheyenne to work in the restaurant, bringing years of experience with them.

Lehman stated that when they first decided to open a restaurant they decided that their establishment would be the cleanest and friendliest restaurant in the area. She stated that good customer service seems to be a thing of the past and that they intended to bring it back adding that her daughter Kate knows her stuff, having enough training to know quality customer service.

A sign for the restaurant is coming soon along with the addition of the Ice Age ice cream parlor in the spring. After the ice cream parlor the couple intends on adding a meeting room [already started] and an arcade for the kids. "We are going to convert a part of the back section into an arcade for the kids. They have a really cool Jurassic World, one of those 3D arcade games that I want to get to go along with the theme but that's down the road. We want to get the ice cream parlor going first," Lehman said.

Business hours are 11 a.m. – 10 p.m. Lehman said that they are going to try those hours for a year and adjust them if needed. "If it turns out that people don't need us to stay open that late, we might close earlier next year."