Every Wyoming town has that one spot locals name-drop the second you ask where to eat. In Laramie, one of the names that comes up over and over is Altitude Chophouse & Brewery, a downtown steakhouse-slash-brewpub that has been pouring its own beer and searing its own steaks at 7,200 feet since 1999. It sits at 320 S. 2nd Street, right in the thick of Laramie’s downtown grid, a couple of blocks from the university crowd and the railroad tracks that built this town.
I’ll level with you before we go any further: I haven’t eaten here myself yet. This isn’t a “Sean pulled up a barstool and worked his way through the tap list” review. It’s a “here’s what you actually need to know before you go” rundown, built from the restaurant’s own menus, a stack of reviews, and the kind of reputation a place only earns by sticking around for twenty-five-plus years. When I finally make the drive down I-80, I’ll come back and tell you how the ribeye held up. For now, consider this your scouting report.
A Homegrown Laramie Institution
Altitude opened in 1999, started by Greg Smith and Karen Robillard, with a pretty simple idea: put sophisticated food and house-brewed beer under one roof without making anybody feel like they had to dress up for it. Casual Rocky Mountain atmosphere, real cooking, real brewing. A quarter century later, that formula is still holding. Tripadvisor has it sitting at a 4.2 rating and ranked among the top handful of restaurants in Laramie, which is not nothing in a town that takes its food more seriously than outsiders expect.
What I find genuinely likeable is how deep the place is dug into its own town. The locally owned parent company reportedly gives back more than $30,000 a year to community organizations, everything from the Eppson Center for Seniors to the local roller derby to University of Wyoming programs. That’s the kind of quiet, unglamorous investment that tells you a business plans to be around for the long haul.
The Beer: Brewed On-Site at 7,200 Feet
This is a real brewpub, not a restaurant that slaps a house label on someone else’s beer. Altitude’s brewers turn out a rotating lineup of ales and lagers that has racked up local, regional, and national medals over the years. The flagship is Tumblewheat, a cloudy, easy-drinking wheat beer that’s always on tap. From there it ranges all over the map: the nitro-poured 7200′ Stout, the malty German-style ALTitude Altbier, the hop-forward High Plains Pale Ale, and a West Coast IPA they call Dimetrodon. My personal must-try, sight unseen, is Heat and Repeat, a green-chili Kölsch built with jalapeño, Serrano, Carolina Reaper, and Hatch chiles. A chili beer is a leap of faith, but a brewery with this many medals has earned the benefit of the doubt.
They also brew collaboration beers that funnel money back into town, like an apricot blonde tied to Laramie’s local theater company. If you’re the type who tastes a great house beer and immediately wants to try making your own, a starter home brewing kit is a fun rabbit hole to fall down, and Wyoming’s high-and-dry climate is a surprisingly forgiving place to learn. Just don’t expect medals on your first batch.
The Food: Chophouse Fare With a Western Streak
The “chophouse” in the name isn’t decoration. This is steak country cooking, done with a little more ambition than the average small-town grill. House favorites include the Center Cut Ribeye, Cedar Plank Salmon, and Chicken Piccata, alongside a roster of signature burgers that reviewers consistently single out. Dig into the wider menu and you’ll find things like prime rib sandwiches, beer-battered cod, pork belly nachos, and blackened pork medallions.
What to Order
- Center Cut Ribeye — the chophouse move, and the dish the name is basically promising you.
- Cedar Plank Salmon — a lighter option that shows up in the “glad I ordered this” column of reviews.
- A signature burger — the safe-bet crowd-pleaser locals keep coming back for.
- Tumblewheat + Heat and Repeat — one easy-drinker, one adventure. Order both and split the difference.
Worth knowing: they keep dedicated vegetarian and vegan menus and flag gluten-free options, which in a Wyoming steakhouse is more thoughtful than the baseline. If you’ve got a picky eater or a dietary restriction in your group, this is a safer bet than most.
Who Goes There
From what I can tell, Altitude pulls a genuine cross-section of Laramie: University of Wyoming faculty and parents in town for a game weekend, downtown workers on a lunch break, couples out for a nicer-than-usual dinner, and beer people who came specifically for the taps. The vibe gets described as “posh but casual,” which is exactly the sweet spot a college town needs, somewhere you can show up in a flannel or a blazer and feel equally at home.
When to Go, and How to Do It Right
- Address: 320 S. 2nd Street, Laramie, WY 82070.
- Phone: (307) 721-4031 — call ahead to confirm hours before you drive.
- Hours: Open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday, closed Sundays. Hours shift, so verify the day you’re going.
- Price range: Mid-range for a chophouse — not a splurge palace, not a burger shack. Reviewers frequently mention the steak-to-price ratio favorably.
- Pro move: Come hungry and thirsty. A place that both brews and grills in-house rewards ordering across both columns.
Why It’s Worth Knowing About
Downtown Laramie has quietly become one of my favorite little food corridors in the state, and Altitude anchors it the way a good brewpub should. Make a day of it: grab a morning cup at Coal Creek Coffee a few blocks over, poke around the shops, and land at Altitude when the taps start looking good. If you’re chasing Wyoming’s brewing scene more broadly, it’s the same thread that runs through the Wyoming Brewers Festival — small-state breweries punching well above their weight.
A steakhouse that brews its own award-winning beer, feeds its town, and quietly gives tens of thousands back to it every year is exactly the kind of Wyoming institution this blog exists to point you toward. I’m putting it near the top of my own Laramie list.
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 the chili beer is as good as I’m hoping. And if there’s another Wyoming institution I need to profile next, send it my way.
— Sean