There are a handful of places in Wyoming where the building itself has more stories than the menu, and Cassie’s Supper Club & Dance Hall in Cody is near the top of that list. It sits at 214 Yellowstone Avenue, a low-slung landmark that’s been feeding and entertaining this town for roughly a hundred years. I’ll be straight with you up front: I haven’t pulled up a chair at Cassie’s myself yet. It’s on my Wyoming short list, and this is the profile I put together for anyone heading to Cody who wants to know what they’re walking into before they walk into it. Because this is one of those spots where knowing the story ahead of time makes the whole night better.
Who Was Cassie, Anyway?
Let’s get to the good part, because the history here is the hook. Cassie’s is named for Cassie Waters, one of the more famous madams of Cody’s frontier era. Back in the early 1900s, when Cody was still a rough young town riding the tail end of the Old West, Cassie ran a house of ill repute on this very property. That’s the polite way of saying it. She was, by most accounts, a shrewd businesswoman and a genuine character — the kind of person who becomes a legend precisely because a town like early Cody was full of larger-than-life people and she still stood out.
Over the decades the operation changed hands and changed purpose. The brothel days ended, and the building found new life as a supper club and dance hall — the classic mid-century Western combination of a steak, a stiff drink, and a wooden dance floor. They kept the name, and they kept the spirit. That’s the part I love. Plenty of towns would have quietly renamed a place with a past like this. Cody leaned in. Today you can eat a prime rib in a building that started as a frontier brothel, and nobody’s embarrassed about it — it’s part of the pitch. If you want to go deeper on the town’s wild early days, there’s a whole shelf of Cody and Wyoming history books worth digging into before your trip. It makes the drive across the Bighorn Basin a lot more interesting.
The Food: A Wyoming Steakhouse That Never Needed to Change
Cassie’s is, at its heart, a steakhouse — and a real one, not a themed one. The menu is the kind that hasn’t needed reinventing because it got things right a long time ago. You come here for beef. Prime rib is the signature move, cut thick and served the way a supper club is supposed to serve it. Steaks across the board — ribeye, sirloin, the classics — anchor the menu, and being Wyoming, there are bison options too for folks who want something a little more regional on the plate.
Set your expectations correctly and you’ll have a great time. This is not white-tablecloth fine dining, and it isn’t trying to be. It’s also a solid step up from your average roadhouse. Think of it as an honest, generous dinner house — the kind of place where the portions are serious, the sides are the sides you want (potato, salad, bread), and the whole thing is built around the idea that you came hungry. If you’re the type who likes to recreate that big-cut, special-occasion prime rib at home, a good prime rib roasting rack is the single piece of gear that makes it possible in your own oven. But I’ll be honest — half the magic at Cassie’s is that you didn’t have to cook it.
What to Order
- Prime rib — the house signature. If you order one thing, order this.
- A ribeye or sirloin — for the steak purist who wants char and marbling.
- Bison — the regional play, and a good excuse to eat something you can’t get back home.
- A cold beer or a stiff pour — this is a supper club. The bar is not an afterthought.
The Bar and the Dance Hall: What Actually Sets It Apart
Here’s the thing that separates Cassie’s from every other good steakhouse in the state. After dinner, the place turns into a honky-tonk. On weekends there’s live country music and a real dance floor, and the room fills up with people who came to two-step. This is not a piped-in-playlist situation. This is a band, a floor, and a crowd that knows what to do with both.
That combination — supper first, then a dance hall — is a genuinely old Wyoming tradition, and Cassie’s is one of the last places keeping it alive at full volume. You can have a proper steak dinner, push the plates back, order another round, and end up dancing to a country band in a building older than the state’s highway system. There aren’t many rooms left where the whole evening flows like that. It’s the reason locals keep coming back, and it’s the reason you should build your night around Cassie’s rather than treating it as just a meal.
Who Goes There
The best sign of a real restaurant is who’s sitting in it, and Cassie’s threads a needle that a lot of tourist-town spots can’t. Yes, it draws travelers — Cody is the eastern gateway to Yellowstone, and plenty of visitors want one honest, memorable Wyoming dinner before they head into the park. Cassie’s delivers exactly that. But it never tipped over into a tourist trap, because the locals never left. This is where Cody families celebrate. It’s where ranchers and river guides and folks who’ve lived here their whole lives go for a night out. When the visitors and the community are eating in the same room, you know a place is doing it right.
When to Go, and How to Do It Right
Summer is the busy season, full stop. Cody swells with Yellowstone-bound travelers from June through August, and Cassie’s feels it. The single biggest crunch is Cody Stampede week around the Fourth of July — the town’s massive rodeo blowout — when Cody is packed to the rafters and every good table is spoken for. If you’re in town for the Stampede, Cassie’s should absolutely be on your list, but plan ahead. Don’t roll up at 7:00 p.m. on rodeo weekend expecting to walk in.
A few practical notes to make your night smooth:
- Reservations: Call ahead, especially in summer and on weekends. This is not a place to leave to chance in peak season.
- Timing: Come for dinner, stay for the music. Weekends are when the dance hall comes alive.
- Address: 214 Yellowstone Ave, Cody, WY — easy to find on the main drag.
- The move: Eat early-ish, then hang around for the band. Treat it as a full evening, not a quick stop.
Why It’s Worth Knowing About
Wyoming has a small number of restaurants that are institutions — places that are less about any single dish and more about being a living piece of the state. Down in Jackson, Snake River Brewing plays that role for beer and mountain-town energy. Up in Cody, Cassie’s plays it for steak, country music, and a century of Wyoming nights that started with a frontier madam and never really slowed down.
That’s the pitch. You get a genuinely good steakhouse dinner, a bar that means it, a dance floor with a live band, and a building with a backstory you’ll be telling people about for years. If you’re passing through Cody on your way to Yellowstone — or you’re in town for the Stampede and want the real deal — this is the one to put on the calendar. I haven’t made it there myself yet, but everything about Cassie’s tells me it’s exactly the kind of place this blog exists to send you to.
If you beat me to it, I want to hear about it. Tag @wyofood on Instagram or find Wyo Food on Facebook and tell me what you ordered and whether you stuck around to dance. And if there’s another Wyoming institution I need to profile next, send it my way.
— Sean