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!
2 comments:
I used to eat at this cafeteria regularly when I worked just a few blocks away in Midtown. It's one of the nicest in town, and I'm glad to hear that it has survived the Dial / Viad split. There used to be a full-service restaurant on the same floor; I'm not sure if it has survived.
This cafeteria coverage is a great idea. Keep it up.
FYI - there is no full-service restaurant on the 2nd floor anymore. It's been replaced by offices but the seating area from that restaurant is now part of the cafeteria's seating area.
Cafeterias in office towers have some great food for reasonable prices. I've been told that Mexican food day (Thursdays) at the City Hall cafeteria is great because you can get great Mexican cuisine for incredibly reasonable prices.
Sam Richard and I had a theory that, often times, cafeterias in office towers aren't really to make money. The vendors for these cafeterias know that the building management will pay for whatever costs the vendor doesn't recoup through food sales because the building management wants happy tenants. So we wonder if the cafeterias in these buildings would like the added publicity that this project brings them or if they'd rather shy away from it. I bet there are interesting sides of the argument.
Also, if I may, I write another blog that I call "The News from Downtown Phoenix" that's dedicated a little bit more to the future of downtown Phoenix, but from the perspective of an urban studies/public administration major. It's at http://blog.edwardjensen.net/, and I'd welcome your feedback on it.
Thanks - EJ
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