Awesomeness an Hour Outside of Laramie
Drive an hour north of Laramie, Wyoming and you’re in for a treat. Not the beautiful yet blank scenery, though there’s plenty of that.
Surprisingly good Mexican food! Surprising only because there’s not much in Rawlins, WY.
And some of the best I’ve ever had, though I imagine that depends personal experience. Driving up to the Grand Tetons we stopped for lunch in Rawlins and picked Rose’s Lariat Restaurantt.
It’s unprepossessing exterior was a good sign (it turns out we were coming in the back door). There were 4 tiny tables in a small room leading directly into the kitchen and then to the right was a small bar with counter seating.
The weather was gorgeous so we opted to sit outside. Very spicy hot salsa full of vegetable chunks and a nice topping of cheese were brought out with fairly average tortilla chips.
The menu had a variety of options, including two “specials†sections.
And be sure to check out what was listed under “The Lighter Side.†🙂
I figured the food would be better than average but I wasn’t prepared for quite how good it was.
The red sauce on the cheese enchiladas contained cinnamon. Mmmmm.
The cheese quesadilla with fresh green chiles was stuffed to bursting! The beans and rice wer good but not remarkable.
The beef chimichanga was crispy and tender. I think I actually like chimichangas now, before they just seemed excessively fried.
And of course after eating all that food we couldn’t not check out how good the dessert might be so we ordered a churro and were warned it wasn’t a typical churro. It was a tortilla deep fried and topped with cinnamon sugar. Sold.
And it was even better than described. More than a dozen tortilla triangles liberally coated with cinnamon and sugar ready for dipping in vanilla bean ice cream.
Definitely worth a stop!
Rose’s is a favorite – there are some great little places in Lander, Riverton and Dubois, depending on which route you take, though I mostly know them by sight, not by name. Worth tanking up before enjoying the awesome Wind River Range scenery. Have fun in the Tetons (they are certainly grand, but there’s only one Grand…).