Gold Town Casino set to debut new food offerings today

Those in search of new food options in town need look no further than Gold Town Casino, as they are set to serve up a pair of new amenities at its property.

The Back Porch Cafe and Slices and Scoops, a pizza and ice cream parlor, are prepared to debut their 2,000-square-feet of deliciousness today.

The Back Porch Cafe had an interior remodel done inside its space, to give it more of a homey feel and its menu was redone to add an international flair.

“With the new facelift to the property we wanted to do something a little bit different for quite some time now and we felt that this was the right time,” said Eduardo Hernandez, ‎senior director of hospitality with Golden Casino Group. “We are bringing in an international feast to the menu. That will cover Mexican, Italian and Asian as well.”

In addition to wanting to offer new plates along with their remodel, customers have been asking about adding new menu items.

“People like variety, and that’s what really inspired the international piece,” Hernandez said.

The new menu is highlighted by the Sriracha shrimp tacos, spaghetti and meatball, which features a single eight-ounce meatball, the sweet and sour pork meal and the Mexican shrimp cocktail, among a bevy of other choices.

With all the food offerings at the cafe, Hernandez said the best part is that it won’t break one’s pocketbook, as most dishes fall in the $8 to $9 range.

“For what you pay, you really get a lot of food,” he said. “You can’t go anywhere in town and find this diverse of a menu.”

The addition of Slices and Scoops is geared toward those who are in for a quicker meal with the pizza-by-the-slice option and for those who want to cool down in the desert heat with the variety of ice creams offered.

“With the pizza concept, we wanted to service a different type of guest that comes in,” he said. “The property hasn’t had pizza in recent history and we felt ice cream will be great in one of the hottest places in North America.”

Slices and Scoops will start off with eight flavors of ice cream initially, with the possibility of adding a few more already on the horizon. Some flavors will change seasonally, so if you thought you tried them all, just wait for a few months and new ones will be available.

“Depending on the palate of the customer, we will be bringing in some specialty ice creams as well,” Hernandez said.

The pizza at Slices and Scoops is customizable, but if you wanted to stick with the familiar pizza toppings those are available too, with the restaurant’s own little twist.

“You can definitely do your own thing, but we do have the traditional cheese, pepperoni, and Italian pizza,” Hernandez said. “We’re looking more to that rustic feel on the pizza. For example, the sausage pizza will have slices of sausage, not crumbled sausage. That’s just one of the things that we’ll be doing a little bit different.”

With the remodel of the cafe and the addition of Scoops and Slices, Hernandez explained that more employees will be needed to ensure the pair of restaurants have enough manpower.

“We are increasing our staff by probably six or seven more team members, full-time jobs in that particular area,” he said.

Now that all the work and planning is done and the new culinary offerings are set to debut, Hernandez and team are excited about the grand opening today.

“We love it,” he said. “The team in the back has done a phenomenal job, the chef, Bill Bitzer has done a phenomenal job. The look and feel of the restaurant to me has changed dramatically. There’s nicer lighting and it just gives you more of a feel of that patio concept.”

To celebrate the grand opening of Slices and Scoops, through the month of July the site will offer $1 scoops of ice cream and $1 slices of pizza. Also, if you buy two slices of pizza, a customer can receive a free scoop of ice cream.

If you’d like to give one of the two new restaurants a try at Gold Town you can grab a pizza or some ice cream at Slices and Scoops Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and grab breakfast, lunch or dinner at the Back Porch Cafe from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m., seven days a week.

Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pvtimes.com. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.