A giant American Buffalo greets patrons as they arrive at The Gun Barrel. Set in a former taxidermy museum, the steakhouse has a distinctly Western feel (many of the museum’s full mount game trophies, which were taken from around Jackson Hole, are still on display today). The extensive selection of game meat makes it a truly Wyoming experience. Some might even say this is the place to get game meat in town, and for good reason. They do elk, bison and venison six different ways.
The 20-year-old restaurant is packed nightly with locals and tourists looking for a variety of game options. In the busy summer season, lines can form out the door around 5 p.m. The man who has been tending the open-flame grill at the back of the restaurant for 16 years? Pete Lagerveld.
Lagerveld came to Jackson from Tucson, Ariz., but it has been during his tenure at The Gun Barrel that he honed his skill with game meat. He encourages people to branch out of their red-meat routine and give game meat a shot.
“You’d be surprised how often we get a table of 12, and everybody orders game meat,” Lagerveld says. “People are curious, they want something different, they want to try it.”
The Gun Barrel gets their game meat through the Western Buffalo Company out of South Dakota.
“Over the 16 years I’ve been here, you learn to work with a purveyor. Our guy with the Western Buffalo Company has a high standard,” Lagerveld says.
