Restaurant & Bar Signage That Actually Drives Foot Traffic: A Laramie Guide

Laramie is a town of roughly 32,000 people that regularly behaves like a city twice its size. The University of Wyoming brings 17,000 students, faculty, and staff into the mix. Cowboys football fills War Memorial Stadium six or seven Saturdays every fall, flooding downtown with fans looking for somewhere to eat and drink. Summer sends a steady stream of I-80 travelers through town. And the local population itself supports a restaurant and bar scene that punches well above its weight for a town this size. If you own a restaurant or bar in Laramie, you are not short on potential customers. The question is whether your signage is actually pulling them through your door — or letting them walk right past.

We have built signs for restaurants, bars, breweries, and coffee shops across Laramie and Albany County since 1990. We have watched businesses open with great food and close within a year because nobody knew they were there. We have also watched average restaurants thrive for decades because they nailed their visibility from the street. Signage is not the only factor, but for food and drink businesses that depend on walk-in and drive-by traffic, it is one of the most controllable factors you have. This guide covers what works, what does not, and how to match your signage strategy to the specific foot-traffic patterns of Laramie.

Understanding Laramie’s Foot Traffic Patterns

Before you spend a dollar on signage, you need to understand where your customers are coming from and when. Laramie does not have one foot traffic pattern. It has several, and they overlap in useful ways if you know how to take advantage of them.

The Grand Avenue Corridor

Grand Avenue is Laramie’s main commercial artery. It carries traffic from I-80 into downtown and through to the university. Nearly every visitor to Laramie drives Grand Avenue at some point. For restaurants and bars along this corridor, your sign is competing with every other business on the strip for a driver’s attention at 30 to 35 mph. That gives you roughly two to three seconds to communicate three things: what you are, that you are open, and that you are worth stopping for.

The businesses that win on Grand Avenue have exterior signs that are legible at speed. That means large, high-contrast text with your name and category (restaurant, brewery, steakhouse, bar & grill) clearly readable from 200 feet. If your sign requires someone to slow down to read it, you have already lost the I-80 traveler and the game day visitor who does not know the town.

Downtown 2nd and 3rd Street

Downtown Laramie’s core restaurant and bar district sits along 2nd and 3rd streets, between Grand and Garfield. This is a pedestrian-speed environment. People are walking, browsing, deciding where to eat. The signage game here is completely different from Grand Avenue. On 2nd Street, you are competing for the attention of someone walking at three miles per hour from ten feet away, not someone driving at 35 mph from 200 feet. That means detail matters. Character matters. Your sign can be smaller, but it needs to be more interesting.

Projecting blade signs that hang perpendicular to the building are critical in downtown because they are visible to pedestrians walking along the sidewalk. A wall-mounted sign that faces the street is invisible to someone walking directly in front of your building. A blade sign solves that problem. The best downtown restaurants in Laramie use a combination of a primary wall sign for across-the-street identification and a projecting blade sign for sidewalk-level pedestrian capture.

Ivinson Avenue and the University Corridor

The area along Ivinson Avenue between downtown and the UW campus is student territory. Coffee shops, quick-service restaurants, bars, and late-night food spots depend heavily on the daily flow of 17,000 students moving between campus, downtown, and residential neighborhoods. These are younger consumers who are brand-aware, social-media-influenced, and often making spontaneous dining decisions based on what they see while walking or biking.

For this corridor, window graphics and creative visual branding carry outsized weight. Students respond to distinctive, well-designed visuals more than they respond to big generic signs. A restaurant near campus with a custom-illustrated window mural and a well-lit branded blade sign will outperform a restaurant with a bigger but blander sign every time.

Game Day and Event Traffic: Your Biggest Signage Opportunity

Cowboys football is the heartbeat of Laramie’s hospitality economy. On a home game Saturday, the town’s population effectively doubles. War Memorial Stadium holds nearly 30,000 people, and a significant percentage of those fans are from out of town — Cheyenne, Casper, Fort Collins, Denver. They arrive Friday night, they stay through Saturday, and many stay for Sunday morning brunch. They do not know where to eat. They are looking for cues, and your signage is the loudest cue you have.

Here is what we have seen work for game day traffic:

• Temporary banners with game day specials. A banner that says "Cowboys Pre-Game Specials — Open at 10 AM" catches the eye of every fan driving Grand Avenue looking for somewhere to go before kickoff. These are low-cost, high-impact, and you can update the message for every home game. Mesh material is essential for outdoor banner survival during fall wind in Laramie.
• A-frame sidewalk signs on 2nd and 3rd Street. On game day, downtown foot traffic surges. A well-designed A-frame placed at the sidewalk with a chalkboard or changeable message ("$5 draft pitchers during the game") intercepts people who are wandering with no plan. Weight or anchor these signs — game day in October means 40 mph gusts are likely, and an airborne sandwich board is not the kind of attention you want.
• Illuminated primary signs that are visible at night. Games start at various times, and fans are out well after dark. If your primary sign is not illuminated, you are invisible to every person driving past after sunset. Illuminated channel letters or an externally lit sign are essential for any restaurant or bar that wants to capture evening traffic.

UW basketball, campus events, parents’ weekend, move-in weekend in August, and graduation in May all create similar surges of out-of-town visitors who are unfamiliar with Laramie’s dining options. Your permanent signage needs to work for these people year-round, not just for locals who already know where you are.

Seasonal Signage Strategies for Laramie

Summer: I-80 Travelers and Tourists

June through September, Laramie gets a steady flow of road-trip travelers on I-80 — families heading to Yellowstone, cross-country travelers, and regional tourists visiting the Snowy Range and Vedauwoo. Many of these people exit I-80 looking for a meal, and they make their decision based on what they see from the car. For restaurants near the I-80 exits or along Grand Avenue, summer is the season where your road-facing signage earns its keep.

If your sign is not clearly readable from Grand Avenue at driving speed, you are losing summer travel traffic to the restaurant with the bigger, brighter sign one block over. This is also the season when patio dining signage matters. If you have an outdoor seating area, make sure it is visible from the street. A simple banner, A-frame, or even a well-placed window graphic that says "Patio Open" captures people who are specifically looking for outdoor dining in the summer.

Winter: Dark by 4:30 PM — Illumination Is Not Optional

In December and January, Laramie gets dark by 4:30 in the afternoon. That means your dinner service — the highest-revenue part of your day — happens entirely in the dark. If your sign is not illuminated, you functionally do not have a sign for the most important hours of your business day.

This is where illumination goes from a nice feature to a non-negotiable investment. The options for restaurants include:

• Front-lit channel letters: The face of each letter is illuminated from within using LEDs. This is the most common and effective option for restaurant identification. Clean, professional, visible from hundreds of feet in the dark.
• Halo-lit (reverse) channel letters: Light projects from behind each letter, creating a soft glow against the building wall. This creates a more upscale, ambient appearance that works especially well for fine dining and craft cocktail bars.
• Gooseneck or spotlight illumination: External lights mounted above the sign, casting light down onto the sign face. This has a classic, warm aesthetic that suits historic downtown buildings and gives an inviting feel.
• Neon or faux-neon LED accent lighting: Real neon or LED neon-flex tubing used for accent elements — "OPEN" signs, decorative outlines, window-mounted accents. Neon has a warmth and visual pull that LED panels cannot replicate, and it is particularly effective for bars and nightlife venues. LED neon-flex is a lower-maintenance alternative that achieves a similar look.

During winter, the quality of your illumination directly correlates with your visibility. A well-lit sign on a dark December evening is a beacon. It tells people you are open, you are warm, and you are ready for them. A dark sign at 5 PM on a Wednesday in January tells people nothing at all.

Sign Types That Work for Restaurants and Bars

Primary Identification Signs

Every restaurant needs a primary sign that clearly states your name and what you are. This is typically a wall-mounted sign, channel letters, or a projecting blade sign, depending on your building and location. For Grand Avenue locations, larger is better — you need to be readable at driving speed. For downtown pedestrian locations, medium-sized signs with distinctive design carry the day. For properties set back from the road, a monument sign at the street frontage is essential so people know you exist before they have already driven past your parking lot entrance.

Window Graphics and Vinyl

Window graphics are one of the most underused tools in restaurant signage. Your storefront windows are prime real estate. Hours of operation, daily specials, a tagline, a food photograph, your social media handle, a frosted privacy band for dining areas that face the sidewalk — all of these communicate something useful to potential customers. For restaurants, window graphics turn dead glass into a secondary advertising surface at a fraction of the cost of a new sign.

We also install full and partial window wraps for restaurants that want a more dramatic storefront presence. A high-quality printed window graphic with perforated vinyl lets you display full-color food photography or branded graphics on the outside while maintaining visibility from inside. This is particularly effective for restaurants on 2nd and 3rd Street, where pedestrians are close enough to see detail in the graphics.

Menu Boards and Daily Specials

Outdoor menu boards serve a specific and valuable function: they convert foot traffic into walk-ins. A person who can see your menu before entering is far more likely to commit than someone who has to open the door and ask. For restaurants in downtown Laramie’s pedestrian zone, a well-designed exterior menu board — either a permanently mounted display with changeable inserts or a high-quality A-frame — removes the uncertainty that keeps potential diners walking.

For quick-service and counter-service restaurants, interior menu boards are equally critical. A clear, well-organized, legible menu board reduces ordering time, improves customer experience, and allows you to visually promote high-margin items. Backlit menu boards are the standard for quick-service because they are readable in all lighting conditions and draw the customer’s eye immediately upon entering.

A-Frame Sidewalk Signs

A-frames are the scrappiest, most flexible tool in a restaurant’s signage arsenal. A good A-frame with a chalkboard or changeable letter panel lets you update your message daily: lunch specials, happy hour times, game day promotions, live music tonight. They cost a fraction of a permanent sign, and they are the single best way to intercept pedestrian traffic with a timely, specific call to action.

The caveat in Laramie: A-frames must be weighted or staked. We have discussed the wind situation. An unanchored A-frame in a Laramie spring wind is a liability, not a sign. We build weighted A-frame bases and offer wind-rated sidewalk sign systems that stay put in conditions that would send a standard A-frame tumbling down 2nd Street. Check Laramie’s sign permit rules for sidewalk sign placement regulations — there are setback requirements from the curb and accessible path rules to follow.

Neon and LED Accent Lighting

There is a reason neon signs and bars go together. Neon has a visual warmth and personality that flat-panel signs lack. A neon "OPEN" sign in a window, a neon accent outlining a building feature, or a custom neon piece in a window display creates a sense of life and energy that draws people in. For bars, breweries, and late-night restaurants, accent lighting is not decoration — it is functional signage that communicates atmosphere.

Traditional glass neon is still available and still beautiful, but LED neon-flex tubing has become a practical alternative for many applications. It uses a fraction of the energy, generates negligible heat, and is far more durable against vibration and impact. For outdoor use in Laramie, LED neon-flex is generally the better choice because it handles cold temperatures better than traditional neon and is easier to repair if damaged.

Common Mistakes Laramie Restaurants Make with Signage

• No illumination on a restaurant that serves dinner. This is the most costly mistake we see. If you serve food after 5 PM, your sign must be lit. In a Laramie winter, "after 5 PM" is "after dark." An unlit restaurant sign after sunset is the equivalent of not having a sign at all.
• Too much information on the primary sign. Your primary exterior sign should communicate your name and your category. That is it. Not your phone number. Not your hours. Not your slogan. Not a list of cuisine types. All of that information belongs on secondary signage — window graphics, A-frames, and menu boards. Your primary sign has two to three seconds to do its job. Do not make it do five jobs poorly.
• Ignoring the approach from all directions. Your customers do not all approach from the same direction. If your sign only faces east and half your traffic comes from the west, you have a sign that works for half your customers. Blade signs, monument signs at the road, and secondary directional signs solve this.
• Settling for the sign the previous tenant left behind. If you took over a restaurant space and you are still using the old tenant’s sign with a vinyl overlay of your name, that shows. It always shows. A purpose-built sign for your brand communicates permanence and investment. It tells customers you are here to stay, not just trying the space out. New signage is more affordable than most restaurant owners expect →
• Forgetting about the bar or patio entrance. If your bar has a separate entrance from your dining room, that entrance needs its own sign. If your patio is around the corner from the main door, a directional sign from the sidewalk helps people find it. Do not assume customers will explore — make it obvious.

Planning Your Restaurant Signage Investment

A comprehensive signage package for a Laramie restaurant typically includes:

• Primary identification sign (channel letters, blade sign, or wall sign): $3,000 to $10,000 depending on size, illumination, and complexity
• Window graphics (hours, tagline, decorative elements): $300 to $1,500
• A-frame sidewalk sign (wind-rated for Laramie): $200 to $600
• Menu board (exterior or interior, backlit or non-lit): $400 to $2,500
• Neon or LED accent elements: $500 to $3,000
• Interior branding and wayfinding: $500 to $3,000

A restaurant that does all of this right might spend $5,000 to $15,000 on a complete signage package. That sounds like a significant number until you calculate the return. If better signage brings in just two additional tables per night at an average check of $50, that is $36,500 in additional annual revenue. The signage pays for itself in the first few months and keeps paying for the next 10 to 15 years.

We work with restaurant owners to prioritize the elements that will have the biggest immediate impact on foot traffic, then build out the rest of the signage system over time if budget is a constraint. For most Laramie restaurants, the highest-priority item is an illuminated primary sign that works after dark. Everything else builds from there.