Welcome to #HOMETOWNHUSTLE – a SweetwaterNOW series where we highlight hardworking individuals in our community.
This month we sat down with Jeff Stout and Kelly Lennon, co-owners of the Hitching Post in Green River. Jeff bought what was then the Wild Horse Saloon in 2007 to help a friend start over. He now owns three Green River businesses: the Hitching Post, Club 86 and The Green River Bowling Center.
The backstory
Jeff bought the bar, then called Wild Horse Saloon, in February 2007 with a friend from Colorado who was going though a divorce. Together they bought the whole building, including a restaurant called Buckaroos who they leased out to someone else.
Jeff said he is one of the people who sits around with buddies saying they should buy a bar, and actually did it.
“We had live music every weekend, and it was a very busy place,” Jeff said.
Over time the business began trending down, so he decided to remodel. His plan was to enlarge the restaurant and move the bar into the smaller side of the building.
Taking over the restaurant
In October 2014, the woman leasing the Buckaroos told Jeff she was closing it.
“She said, ‘I’m closing the restaurant.’ And I said, ‘No, you’re not,'” Jeff said.
Jeff took over the restaurant, and he and two friends handled the remodeling. He kept the existing employees. A cook wrote a new menu and worked with vendors, Kelly said, and a server helped with schedules.
The restaurant officially opened April 15, 2015, in the larger space. The bar reopened Dec. 31, 2015, after its own remodel. Jeff said he changed the business’s “doing business as” name to the Hitching Post more than 11 years ago. The legal name is still Wild Horse Saloon. His friend left the partnership in December 2015.
Friends, family and business
Kelly began as a bookkeeper at another of Jeff’s businesses and helped bring the point-of-sale system to the restaurant. Three months after Jeff took over the restaurant, she became its manager.
The two met as kids in Jamestown after Jeff moved to Green River from Colorado at age 15. They later married and had a child, and Jeff is now her ex-husband, she said.
“We do really good at friendship and business,” Kelly said.
She said their kids like the arrangement.
“Our kids love that we can have a working relationship and be friends and be cordial with each other in public and at family events and everything else,” she said.
Bars vs. restaurants
Running a bar and running a restaurant are very different, Jeff said.
“It’s night and day,” he said. A bottle of Budweiser is the same every time, he said, but different cooks prepare a burger differently, which can leave a restaurant open to criticism.
Employees are the biggest challenge, he and Kelly said. They praised many of their workers but said work ethic and motivation vary.
It takes a village
The Hitching Post supports the community by sponsoring local events. Kelly said Green River and Sweetwater County residents show how much they care through the money raised at events to help others.
I think that the people in Green River and Sweetwater County are very caring people and we are just trying to give back to the people that helped raise us
Kelly Lennon
The Hitching Post
- Address: 580 E. Flaming Gorge Way, Green River
- Hours: 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, except Sundays, when it closes at 3 p.m.
- Phone Number: 307-875-2246