Joe Downtown: The Grill at Gold Spike reopens to high praise

By Joe Schoenmann

Tuesday, May 14, 2013 | 2:45 p.m.

The moderate prices, Muzak-less atmosphere and care taken with my chicken caesar salad – no brown lettuce, freshly grilled chicken, just-right tangy dressing – of The Grill inside Gold Spike just earned my vote as a great place to eat downtown.

The Gold Spike reopened last week, less than a month after Downtown Project purchased it from Siegel Group of Nevada Inc. Its grand opening is Monday.

Most of the kitchen staff is the same as before the purchase, as Downtown Project hired just about all the food and beverage staff that worked in the Gold Spike under the Siegel Group's ownership.

But a waitress said the meats and produce purchased have been stepped up a notch and the workers seem generally happier. Downtown Project staff say they kept the menu pretty much the same but are ordering a higher grade of ingredients. It’s noticeable.

“I feel like I just started a new job,” the waitress beamed. She has worked in the Gold Spike almost four years.

The restaurant/bar – there's no casino anymore – is also going to be entirely smoke-free and is one of the few places in Las Vegas where I've found Peet’s Coffee. As a drinker of tankards of coffee, Peet’s is one of my favorites.

At noon Tuesday, the cafe was pleasantly slow, a scene likely to change in about four months, after 1,300 Zappos employees move into City Hall, a block north of here.

Joe Schoenmann doesn’t just cover downtown, he lives and works there. Schoenmann is Greenspun Media Group’s embedded downtown journalist, working from an office in the Emergency Arts building.