A Cody caterer is establishing a presence in downtown Powell — and she’s hoping the city will loosen its liquor license rules to accommodate her plans.

Rosie Roberson, who operates Catering by Rosie, has started working out of the building that most recently held the Hayloft restaurant.

While Roberson is keeping her catering office in Cody and continuing to work around the region, she’s doing all her cooking at the Bent Street location. She’s also launching a separate business called “Saguaro” in the building — using the space to host dinners and events and offering it up as a location for people to host events of their own. 

In her work as a caterer, “I’ve been finding out that a lot of people have troubles [trying] to find a small place to have a small event,” Roberson told the Powell City Council on Monday.

Customers who rent the facility for company gatherings, birthday parties, private dinners or other occasions can use Roberson as a caterer or bring in their own food, she said.

Roberson also plans to host her own pop-up dinners, sip-and-paints and other events at the location, and she’d like the ability to sell alcohol. However, the City of Powell’s relatively restrictive liquor licensing rules pose a problem.

A more restrictive city code

Current city code requires license holders to offer alcohol for sale for at least one eight-hour day or three half-days each week. However, Roberson said she doesn’t want to run her business like a traditional restaurant, telling the council that help is in short supply.

“Everybody on my team already [has] two jobs,” she said, and if they have to operate the downtown location multiple days a week, “it will be very difficult for all of us, and we’re gonna get burned out.”

To resolve the issue, Roberson asked the city to match its definition of an “operational” liquor-serving business to state law. Wyoming statute simply requires that a license holder be open on a “weekly basis,” which the state has interpreted to mean that they just have to be open to the public at some point each week, said City Clerk Tiffany Brando.

Roberson said that would be easy to do, as she already delivers food to customers on a weekly basis and doing it at an established location will work better for her.

The legal backstory

Though the ordinance change still needs to be drafted and then passed by the council at three separate meetings, council members appeared to be universally on board with relaxing the city’s “operational” requirements to match the state law. Mayor John Wetzel said he didn’t see any reason not to make the change.

Council members indicated that the requirement to be open at least one day a week stemmed from prior businesses who acquired retail liquor licenses — which are limited in number — and then just held onto them. However, that wouldn’t ever be a concern with the restaurant liquor license that Roberson intends to seek, as there is no numerical cap on that more limited license type.

It’s the third time in recent years that the council has been asked to relax its liquor rules. In 2023, they agreed to let bars stay open an extra hour-and-a-half on designated holidays. Then last year, the council agreed to permit minors in secured, outdoor patios where alcohol is served, even if the establishment doesn’t have a commercial kitchen; that change was made to accommodate Sage Brews Wine Spirits, which regularly has food trucks on site.

Since it will take some time for the city to change its ordinance and issue a liquor license to Roberson, she plans to have customers bring their own alcohol in the interim. She’s slated to host a formal ribbon cutting ceremony for Saguaro on Nov. 20.