Billy Jack's Pizza Pub restaurants in Cheyenne are gone (Probably)
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| Billy Jack's Pizza Pub sign seen at the S Greeley delivery hub - Optopolis |
Although it appears Billy Jack's Pizza Pub has plans of coming back to Cheyenne, it also appears (at this time) that their comeback is intended to revolve more around wholesale pizzas at grocery stores and other businesses, and less around physical store fronts.
A look at the history of Billy Jack's Pizza Pub
Billy Jack's Pizza Pub is a restaurant that originally opened in 2021 in a former Taco John's located on 3rd Ave in Kearney, Nebraska, started by founder Billy Jack Winberg. In early to mid-2022, Billy Jack's would work toward opening two locations in Cheyenne that would be locally owned and operated in part due to the franchise approach as noted near the bottom of the Billy Jack's website.
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| Billy Jack's Kearney, NE location that is still open today - Google Maps Street View |
One location was a "delivery hub" located at 920 ½ S Greeley Hwy that also offered service at a drive-up window, but no seating. The other location was a dine-in restaurant and bar located in one of the spaces inside of the new Cheyenne Regional Airport building on Airport Pkwy (although you could do to-go at this location as well).
Even here in Cheyenne, pizza was their main dish (it's in their name), but patrons could also get a salad or a sub sandwich from Billy Jack's!
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| Optopolis' toasted sub with a side of fries; tomato and lettuce for the sandwich were requested on the side. - Optopolis |
Back in May 2022, Billy Jack's website did not display a section about wholesale pizzas at various grocery stores; their focus was clearly toward the physical restaurant approach to serving customers. At the bottom of the page, they even displayed the statement, "Extremely fast Pizza, Subs, and Salads Dine in, Drive Thru, Curbside pick up, Take out, Delivery, Take and Bake FULL BAR with a Frosty Rail! Big Screen TV's KENO Classy environment, Family Fun."
This was clearly reflected in the Cheyenne airport location with loads of dine-in seating, a pizza bar set up similarly to what you might see at a Papa Murphy's or Subway (but with Billy Jack's own twist), a frosty rail to keep your beverage cold, and even a KENO machine where visitors could play KENO.
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| KENO machine still present inside of the Billy Jack's at the Airport - Optopolis |
At some point in 2023, however, something had shifted in the approach that Billy Jack's Pizza Pub was taking to doing business. By September 2023, their website had a new section under their locations list labeled, "Wholesale locations," which listed various stores and other businesses that offered take-and-bake pizzas made by Billy Jack's.
Perhaps it's explained best in an interview that the YouTube channel, America's Best Restaurants, did with the owner of Billy Jack's Pizza Pub. The owner, Bill, explains that people in Nebraska just, "hated reading the menu," even giving the example that his brother would just ask a restaurant what they recommend instead of looking through the menu on the wall.
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| A view onto the runway from inside the restaurant, one night in late 2022 - Optopolis |
Bill goes on in the video to explain that they rearranged the way Billy Jack's processed orders so that it isn't mandatory for visitors to walk down the line to order pizza; if one wanted, one could instead just jump straight into ordering the pizza they want, then go sit down and get comfortable.
Cheyenne's physical storefronts are (probably) not coming back anytime soon.
Back in June 2023, Billy Jack's Pizza Pub announced on their Cheyenne Facebook page that they would be temporarily closing both Cheyenne locations with a promise of "big things coming soon," saying that "Billy Jack's will be back in Cheyenne before long." Around the time this post was made, it wasn't clear here at Optopolis if this meant restaurants and wholesale pizzas would come, or if it would be just one or the other.
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| Billy Jack's Pizza Pub at the airport seen as temporarily closed in June 2023 - Optopolis |
By September, Billy Jack's website was no longer displaying the Cheyenne locations (the CRA restaurant and the delivery hub on S Greeley Hwy). At the time, no update known of here at Optopolis was posted to confirm or deny whether the Cheyenne restaurants would come back. Since that time, however, new information has surfaced.
The phrase "before long" in Billy Jack's Cheyenne's latest post is a subjective term, but on October 10, 2023, a Facebook user commented on the announcement post in ALL CAPS, 'So, it's now October and you are still not open!! Be truthful and let us know if you are going to reopen, please🙏‼️' Billy Jack's Cheyenne responded that,
[T]he intention is to have our pizzas back in Cheyenne as soon as our national wholesale license is approved. Most likely through grocery stores, breweries and pubs.
To their credit, Billy Jack's Pizza Pub does appear to have been expanding their wholesale availability; in September 2023, their website listed twenty-two Nebraska locations where you could pick up Billy Jack's pizzas; now in January 2024, there are 27 Nebraska locations listed.
Although neither of the Cheyenne Billy Jack's storefronts nor the potential expansion to other states was specified, the sentiment of focusing on wholesale pizzas was reflected in an interview with Billy Jack's owner during a video from the channel America's Best Restaurants on YouTube; in the video, Billy Jack's owner, Bill, said,
As long as everybody still loves Billy Jack's Pizza Pub, we're chasing that wholesale dream...That's the future of Billy Jack's, other than this flagship [restaurant].
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| Optopolis' beverage in a Billy Jack's-branded cup sits on a table next to a roll of paper towel - Optopolis |
The "flagship" restaurant that Bill is referring to is the restaurant displayed in the video, located in Kearney, Nebraska in a former Taco John's. Although Google Maps does tend to have its inaccuracies with info presented, it currently displays both locations--the S Greeley delivery hub and the dine-in airport restaurant--as permanently closed.
At least one of the Cheyenne Billy Jack's locations--the airport location in particular--has been listed for lease as seen in a recent video on Number One Commercial Properties' Facebook page. They encourage those interested in the space to get in touch with Teri Cassidy or Jim Weaver for more information.
What do the two Billy Jack's locations look like today?
To a bit of a surprise here at Optopolis, both locations have had the "Billy Jack's Pizza Pub" signage taken down. Neither the airport restaurant nor the S Greeley delivery hub have Billy Jack's branding anymore, or at the least, they don't display any Billy Jack's branding that can obviously be seen by passerby visitors.
At both locations, the interior appears tranquil, and the lights are mostly/entirely turned out.
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| A glimpse inside the delivery hub in January 2024 - Optopolis |
Billy Jack's in the airport appears to be mostly furnished still to the extent it could likely reopen tomorrow. The S Greeley delivery hub, however, appears mostly empty, not so tidied, and still displays some stickers in the windows.
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