Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Joe Downtown: Casino-less Gold Spike opens Monday; old pizza place to get new life

Gold Spike

John Katsilometes

Bartender J.C. Kelley pours a couple of sodas about an hour before the doors closed for the final time April 14, 2013, at Gold Spike in Downtown Las Vegas. Gold Spike is reopening Monday, May 6, 2013, as a bar and restaurant.

Map of The Gold Spike

The Gold Spike

217 N. Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas

Less than a month after it closed, the Gold Spike will reopen Monday as a bar and restaurant with a large area once devoted to slot machines now home to games such as pool, darts, Golden Tee video golf and shuffleboard.

Michael Downs, Downtown Project executive vice president of operations, said carpet was replaced, paint was touched up and some countertops were replaced. None of the work was extensive enough to require permits, which helped the reopening happen so quickly.

Downtown Project investors purchased the property in April from Siegel Group Nevada Inc., which had done extensive remodeling and renovation after purchasing the casino and hotel in 2008.

Downtown Project closed the casino shortly after buying it, then conducted a job fair for employees who had worked in the hotel/casino. Downs had said 32 former employees who attended the job fair and had worked in the Gold Spike’s food and beverage areas were offered jobs.

When it opens its doors again, the Gold Spike will no longer be a casino, and the hotel will not be open for business.

Uncle Joe’s Pizza reborn

Part of the new Gold Spike will be food from Uncle Joe’s Pizza, whose restaurant at 505 Fremont St. has closed.

Xhindi “Uncle Joe” Hazbi had been leasing space at the Fremont Street location for 17 years. After Downtown Project bought the building, Hazbi admitted he was somewhat worried he might get pushed out when his lease ended in 2015.

Instead, he’s moving into the Gold Spike. Downs said Uncle Joe’s Pizza should be ready for customers in about two months.

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.

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