DPCP: City Hall Grill at Phoenix City Hall

For the latest installment of the Downtown Phoenix Cafeterias Project, Sam and I went to Phoenix City Hall's 10th floor cafeteria, the aptly-named City Hall Grill to sample a long-established Thursday tradition, Mexican Food Day. Known to City Hall staffers and the ASU folk as some really good Mexican food for really low prices, it was definitely worth the walk in 105F+ daytime heat.

The present Phoenix city hall is the fourth incarnation of the civic seat. Although the first building has been torn down (was located where Central Station is presently), nos. 2 and 3 still exist as a county courts building and the Calvin C. Goode Municipal Building. Phoenix's newest City Hall was approved by the City Council in May 1990 and the twenty-storey, $83mln tower opened January 1994. Of interesting note is that the Orpheum Theatre was renovated as part of City Hall's construction. For more information and a lot of photos, check out this website.

While architectural history makes for interesting conversation, let's get to the real reason we're here: food.

As mentioned before, the cafeteria is on the 10th floor of City Hall. To get there from street level, find the elevators that service floors 2-10 (the north bank). Once off the elevators, find the signs that direct you to the cafeteria. (On one side of the elevator bank at the 10th floor is the Fire Prevention Office and the City Photographer's office. If you enter those offices, turn around.)

Since it was Mexican Food Day, I opted to have a chicken taco salad with all the fixin's - rice, beans, salsa, jalapeños, guacamole, sour cream, olives, and everything else. The food was as good as it was reasonable - a rather large portion for $5.49. With drink, I was out the door for $6.50. In addition to the specials, the usual cafeteria fare is there - salads and grilled hamburgers are specialties of the house. The view was as good as the food: the seating area has north, east, and south views (and everything else in between) so you can see the Maricopa County complex, CityScape construction, Chase Field, South Mountain Park, and Midtown.

The cafeteria is open from 8am-4pm with lunch being served in the middle of those hours. Aside from city employees eating, a lot of county court jurors were eating there. Which is for a good reason - good food for a good price brings everyone out!

So in short, the cafeteria is in Phoenix City Hall, 200 West Washington Street (at Marvin Andrews Way) on the 10th floor. Go eat there and enjoy!

Cheers-
Edward Jensen

To stay abreast of the Downtown Phoenix Cafeterias Project information or to recommend cafeterias for us to try out, e-mail cafeterias@edwardjensen.net and thanks!

Phoenix City Hall cafeteria question

Hey everyone -

I've heard that, at one time, Thursdays were Mexican Food Day at the Phoenix City Hall 10th floor cafeteria. Does anyone know if this is still true? If it's the case, then that's Thursday's cafeteria that's being reviewed.

Thanks as always!
-Edward Jensen

As always, if you know of any cafeterias, or would like to stay abreast of what's going on with the cafeteria project, send an e-mail to cafeterias@edwardjensen.net and thanks!

The Cafeteria at the Viad Corporate Center

Okay, so for today's installment of the Downtown Phoenix Cafeterias Project, we headed outside of downtown Phoenix for midtown Phoenix. But not by much – we went to Central Avenue and Palm Lane, an intersection easily accessible when the new METRO Light Rail opens up 27 December 2008. Our stop was the cafeteria at the Viad Corporate Center. (Here's some random information on the building: when finished in 1991, the tower's major tenant was Dial Soap, hence why it looks like a bar of soap.

Once inside the building, take any elevator up to the second floor. Although one set of elevators is marked for floors 2-13 and the other for floors 14-24, all the elevators stop at the 2nd floor. In fact, I'd recommend to take the elevators for the high floors because, once out of the elevators, the cafeteria is right there.

Lunch at Viad's cafeteria is served from 11am-2pm, but the seating area (rather large) is open whenever the building is open to the public. There are two seating areas: inside and patio seating. The inside seating area is clean and wonderful, and if you're in the right place, you can see the towers of downtown Phoenix. We opted not to sit outside because it was windy and there were the intermittent raindrops. Outside seating, I'm sure, is really nice.

The food was good, too. I had the grilled special – a chicken breast sandwich with cheese, onions, and mushrooms. With fries, a cookie, and a large drink, my bill was $7.99. There are several different types of cuisine available: world fare, grill fare, pizza, pasta, and salads. Each of these different types of cuisine has their own specials and their own fixed menu that doesn't change each day.

In short, if you're going to be in midtown Phoenix, or if you're going to the Burton Barr Central Library to do research, it's worth it to stop at the Viad Tower cafeteria on the 2nd floor. It is the nicest of the cafeterias that I have been to as part of this project and as part of eating in and around downtown Phoenix, but I'm not sure if it's lunch-date nice. (Unless he's/she's an urbanite and likes cafeteria fare…)

Cheers – Edward Jensen

To stay abreast of the Downtown Phoenix Cafeterias Project information or to recommend cafeterias for us to try out, e-mail cafeterias@edwardjensen.net and thanks!

The Downtown Phoenix Cafeterias project

I am starting a project identifying all the cafeterias of various downtown Phoenix buildings. We all know that the Chase Tower (at 201 N. Central Ave.) has the Coin Room Café in its basement and that Phoenix City Hall (200 W. Washington St.) has their cafeteria on the 10th floor, but there simply has to be more in downtown Phoenix. If you know of any cafeterias, or would like to stay abreast of what's going on with the cafeteria project, send an e-mail to cafeterias@edwardjensen.net.

Thanks! -EJ