Amanda Henry

“Every town needs a place for folks to gather and connect. That’s what keeps me going on days when I want to just give up the fight. I remember that this is a business born out of community need, and I love my community. 

I grew up in Fremont County and know the families here. I’m on a first-name basis with the majority of the people I run into. I love coffee, so I took my background in manufacturing and decided to open up Brown Sugar Coffee Roastery in 2017. 

When I started out, it was all a learning experience. I was fortunate enough to have a health inspector who was eager to help me learn what I needed to remain in compliance. As the coffee shop grew and I noticed a need for the shop to expand into food service, I was once again at a place where I needed to learn. This time, I was assigned a different health inspector who was less helpful and seemed set on costing me money with arbitrary code violations and ordinances. 

The health and building codes used by the Department of Agriculture here are notoriously vague. Because of the lack of clarity, a lot is left to the interpretation of the individual health inspector. This is a bad combination for a department that seems more interested in being powerful than it is in serving the public. 

When we were forced to move out of our location into a new, temporary location within two weeks, my team rallied. It was an amazing effort. Our health inspector, instead of working with us to help make things possible, decided the move was an opportunity to flex authority and gave us a series of code violations. However, he couldn’t actually show us the codes in question.

When I speak with other restaurant owners in states like California, they can’t believe what I have to deal with. All I want to do is provide a place that my town can be proud of – a place that offers great food and great coffee. The restaurant business is not what you do to get rich. It’s a service you provide for your community. 

At best, the government exists to serve and empower communities to thrive. Unless the regulatory codes used by the state are re-written to be specific and clear, people who want power will continue to abuse the system. 

The mayor of Riverton and state Representative Tim Salazar have both gone to bat for Brown Sugar Coffee Roastery, which has helped keep it all afloat. But the problem is bigger than me and my restaurant. There are businesses like mine all across Wyoming. 

I’m standing up so that other businesses know they are not alone.” 

Amanda Henry
Riverton, Wyoming

Amanda is the owner and operator of Brown Sugar Coffee Roasters.