(PHOTOS) Downtown coffee shop Bourgeois Pig to close at end of week

CASPER, Wyo. — The Casper area will be losing one of its most popular local coffee shops in the coming days, as The Bourgeois Pig in downtown Casper will close its doors for good on Sunday, Oct. 27.

The Bourgeois Pig opened in 2019 under the leadership of Josh Tinnell. Previously, the storefront at 114 W. 2nd St. was a coffee shop called Crescent Moon Coffee, but when that closed, the building’s landlord looked to replace it with another shop. Tinnell was working at Metro Coffee at the time, but he said he jumped at the opportunity to manage the new shop.

At the time, Tinnell — a Casper native — had only recently returned to his hometown after various jobs had taken him throughout the country and beyond.

“My brother was renting from him at the time, and so he reached out to me with this opportunity,” Tinnell said. “I loved working at Metro; I know the guys who opened it and have the utmost respect for them. … But I was excited by the offer.”

Tinnell described the shop as something of a blank canvas for him to paint his vision onto.

“Right away, I knew how I wanted it to look, the atmosphere I wanted to create,” he said. “It was a little sterile at first — actually reminded me a bit of a school cafeteria. But it was mine, so I was able to really go crazy and express myself.”

“And it was actually nice that they hadn’t done a whole lot, because that made it easier to renovate,” Tinnell added with a chuckle.

Tinnell said he had a clear vision of what he wanted his new coffee shop to embody, which included design inspiration from many different sources.

“I liked the retro style of stuff like ‘The Jetsons’ that hearkens back to the ’50s and ’60s, but I also liked the Roaring ’20s and I’m also a Gen X’er who grew up with punk rock and skateboarding,” he said. “I kind of had all of that in my mind.”

One unifying idea Tinnell had for his new shop was the goal of making high-quality coffee accessible to everyone without a heavy price tag. It was ultimately this ideal that lent itself to the business’s new name.

“A bourgeois pig is a bit ironic, right? It’s that middle or lower-class friend who’s always trying to act all upper class,” Tinnell said. “The idea was to be ‘gourmet gutter.'”

Tinnell also wanted to create a space that fostered human interaction, which is why he decided to turn the shop’s counter into a bar for patrons to sit at.

After The Bourgeois Pig opened its doors with a new name, coat of paint and owner, it developed a devoted customer base almost immediately. According to Tinnell, there were customers from the shop’s earliest days who have become regulars who stop by on a near-daily basis.

This is in part thanks to The Bourgeois Pig’s high standards for its drinks. And when it comes to the secret of a good cup of coffee, Tinnell said there is no secret. He says the most important components to making good drinks are simply the right equipment, the right ingredients and the standards to only accept the best.

The Bourgeois Pig also embedded itself in the community by becoming a central part of the local arts scene. The coffee shop became a regular host of concerts, poetry slams, burlesque shows and much more — to say nothing of the artwork adorning the shop’s walls.

“For me, coffee shops have always been a hub for culture and the arts,” Tinnell said. “I knew from the start that I wanted to put an emphasis on that.”

Looking back on the life of The Bourgeois Pig, Tinnell said he’s also proud of the way the shop became involved in activism.

When Black Lives Matter protests were sweeping the nation in 2020, Casper was not exempt from the marches and demonstrations. On the day of a sizable BLM march, Tinnell said several downtown businesses closed their doors in the fear that things might escalate toward violence. However, The Bourgeois Pig took a different approach.

Tinnell set up a table in front of his shop, and offered drinks to both the BLM protesters and the counter-protesters.

“I welcomed both sides,” he said. “I think the only way to solve things, at the end of the day, is to sit across from the other person and talk things out.”

But 2020 was notable for another reason: the COVID-19 pandemic. As with all local businesses, The Bourgeois Pig was affected in a multitude of ways. Everything from the logistics of buying new ingredients to simply figuring out how to serve customers safely became a challenge.

“I really couldn’t close down, because even just a day or two without customers would have sunk me,” Tinnell said.

Even after the pandemic ended, Tinnell said the financial repercussions lingered, and are ultimately what did the coffee shop in.

“We never really recovered from the pandemic,” he said.

Looking back at the five-year life of The Bourgeois Pig, Tinnell said the most important part for him has been the relationships of all sorts he’s created through the business.

Tinnell said he’s developed relationships with several regular customers over the years, coming to know a number of local families through running his shop.

“I’ve seen babies grow up here,” he said, tears coming to his eyes. “I’ve seen families come in with newborns, and seen them grow into young kids. That’s special.”

He also pointed to the relationships formed with his staff as significant.

“I know I can be difficult to work for, but I truly had some of the best people you’ll ever meet working here,” he said.

And though the shop’s owner said everyone on his staff held a place in his heart, he also pointed to two employees in particular as being key pieces of what made The Bourgeois Pig run: Raine Pickinpaugh and Gavin Greenwood.

“Raine has been with us since the very beginning, and it’s been an absolute joy,” Tinnell said. “She started here when she was 16. I got to see her graduate from high school with some amazing grades, and that’s one of the proudest [moments] I’ve ever been.

“Gavin is a life saver. He’s one of those guys who can do everything, and it’s such a blessing to have someone like that. He can make the Rice Krispies Treats, he can handle the sound stuff when we have bands, you name it. We could call him in the middle of the night like, ‘Someone forgot to lock the door,’ and he’d be on it. He’s a good guy.”

To mark The Bourgeois Pig’s final days, the staff have planned a three-day celebration.

The idea was originally to host a few bands for a farewell show on Friday, but when word got out the shop was closing, Tinnell received an outpouring of support from dozens of bands, artists and more. Now, music will kick off on Friday evening, and will run until the coffee shop closes its doors for good at roughly 4 p.m. Sunday.

Tinnell said other acts, such as a burlesque show, are also a possibility.

Doors for the Friday show will open at 5 p.m., with music slated to start around 6. Alcoholic beverages will be available for those 21 and older. There will be a $5 cover at the door.

“It was originally going to be a Halloween show with just three or four bands, and that became five or six bands,” Tinnell said. “But before long, I’d heard from just about every band that ever played here. I honestly don’t know how we’re going to fit it all in.”

Looking to the future, Tinnell said he’s unsure what’s next.

“I’ve got some ideas, some things that could play out,” he said, “but for right now, I’m just trying to get past this whirlwind.”