Gritz Cafe Is Expanding Into the Good Word Market Hall in the Historic Westside in 2027

by Ryan Rose

What Happened

FOX5 reporter Brittany Defran reported on Oct. 7 that the Las Vegas City Council approved Gritz Cafe as a tenant at The Good Word Market Hall. The details came from the City of Las Vegas, which shared the news in a city blog post and on its X account. The city's post put it simply: "A longtime Historic Westside favorite is coming to The Good Word Social Club!"

You will see two names for the same building. The city's planning page calls it The Good Word Social Club and also The Good Word Market Hall. FOX5 used both. They are the same project, on the same corner, at D Street and Madison Avenue in the Historic Westside.

According to FOX5, Gritz Cafe joins two other businesses the council approved earlier in 2026. The names of those two businesses were not listed in the Oct. 7 report [NOT VERIFIED]. The city describes the Gritz location as a dining and community gathering space, and it plans to open it in 2027. An exact opening month has not been announced [NOT VERIFIED]. Lease terms, rent, and the size of the Gritz space were also not part of the public reporting [NOT VERIFIED].

Gritz Cafe's current home is at 1911 Stella Lake St., Suite 150, according to KTNV. The cafe is owned by Trina Jiles. She is a former Clark County Fire Department firefighter and arson investigator who has said she was the first Black woman firefighter in Clark County. She retired from the department in 2017 to run the cafe full time, KTNV reported. The Oct. 7 report did not say whether the original cafe will stay open alongside the new Express location [NOT VERIFIED]. Nothing in the public reporting suggests it is closing.

The menu is the reason people line up. 8 News Now has described crispy fried chicken, fried catfish, sweet potato waffles, buttery biscuits, and creamy grits topped with bacon and cheddar. City Cast Las Vegas, in its guide to the Historic Westside, noted there is almost always a line and pointed readers to the Mississippi plate, which is fried catfish with greens, and the shrimp bowl. Which of those dishes will make the shorter Express menu has not been announced [NOT VERIFIED].

Architectural rendering of The Good Word Social Club interior in the Historic Westside, with food stalls, dining tables and a small performance stage

Why It Matters to Las Vegas Residents

For people who live in the Historic Westside, the biggest change is simple. There will be more places to sit down, eat and spend time close to home. The neighborhood sits right next to downtown, but for years it has had far fewer restaurants and gathering spots than the areas around it. A food hall with a stage and room for local vendors gives residents somewhere to go without driving to Fremont Street or the Arts District.

It also matters that the first big-name tenant is a local business. Gritz Cafe already has a following. When a well-known spot with regular customers moves into a new building, it brings foot traffic on day one. That foot traffic helps the smaller, newer vendors in the hall get noticed. A new food hall full of unknown names can struggle. A food hall with a familiar favorite near the front door has a better shot.

The Good Word is also designed to help people start businesses. The city says the hall will have four designated stalls for small business incubation. Developer Sam Cherry of Cherry Development told FOX5 in March that these are "incubator spaces where you can come with your concept." The idea is that a cook or a small vendor can test a concept in a small, lower-risk space. After a couple of years, Cherry said, the goal is for those businesses to move into their own larger brick-and-mortar spaces in the community. If that works, it means more storefronts on Westside streets over time, not just inside one building.

For everyone else in the valley, it is one more reason to visit a part of town many locals rarely see. Cherry described a future where people spend a few hours in the Westside before heading back to the Strip, Fremont or the Arts District. Whether that happens depends on what opens, how good it is, and whether people actually come. But a soul food favorite with a waiting line is a strong start.

This also connects to what is opening right now. This week, Stew's Stix Cafe holds its ribbon-cutting on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 9:30 a.m. at the Historic Westside School, 330 W. Washington Ave. It serves breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday and doubles as a job-training site run with the City of Las Vegas. Two local food businesses committing to the same neighborhood in the same month is a pattern worth paying attention to.

Location helps too. The Good Word sits a short drive from downtown, and the city's site map shows the I-15 ramps just a few blocks east of the corner of D Street and Madison Avenue. That makes it easy to reach for people coming from the Arts District, Fremont Street, or neighborhoods farther out in the valley. For people who work downtown, a food hall with a known breakfast and lunch name could become a regular lunch stop. Whether parking and hours will work for a weekday lunch crowd has not been announced yet [NOT VERIFIED].

Background and History

The Historic Westside is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Las Vegas. According to the City of Las Vegas, as summarized by City Cast Las Vegas, the original townsite runs along Bonanza Road, Washington Avenue, A Street and H Street. It gets its name from sitting on the west side of the railroad tracks. It is also home to the site of the Moulin Rouge, which City Cast describes as the nation's first racially integrated casino.

For decades the neighborhood saw much less private investment than the rest of the valley. Many longtime residents and business owners stayed and built community anyway. Gritz Cafe is one of those businesses. 8 News Now has called it one of the longest-running Black-owned businesses in Las Vegas. It also survived a hard stretch. During the COVID-19 pandemic, KTNV reported that the cafe cut back from seven days a week to three days, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, to stay open. A contract to provide food through the Nevada Health Center helped keep the doors open, Jiles told KTNV.

A plate of fried chicken and waffles, the kind of Southern breakfast dish Gritz Cafe is known for in the Historic Westside

The Good Word itself is part of a larger push. On Aug. 19, 2026, the city laid out the plan on its website. The hall will have 8,997 square feet of interior space plus a 2,400-square-foot second-floor mezzanine. The city appropriated $8.7 million for it through the Redevelopment Agency and Neighborhood Services Choice Communities funding. The city calls it the first gathering space of its kind in the Historic Westside, combining dining, entertainment and community programming with a curated mix of local vendors.

When the project broke ground in early March, FOX5 reported that Cherry Development was also building 104 units of workforce housing across from The Good Word, and that a College of Southern Nevada campus is planned nearby. FOX5 put the cost of the entire project at about $40 million. That larger number appears to cover more than the market hall alone, since the city's own figure for The Good Word is $8.7 million. The two numbers measure different things, so they should not be read as a conflict. We have covered the workforce apartments separately in our shareWESTSIDE post linked at the top of this page.

What Happens Next

The building comes first, then the tenants. The city's timeline from its August update looked like this:

Construction begins: February 2026
Tenant improvement construction starts: around June 2026
Overall construction completed: by October 2026
Certificate of Occupancy: on or before November 2026

As of this writing, the city has not publicly confirmed whether construction finished on that October target [NOT VERIFIED]. The Oct. 7 FOX5 report still described the building as expected to be complete by October 2026. If the certificate of occupancy arrives on time, tenants can start building out their stalls. That is why Gritz Cafe Express is set for 2027 and not this year. A kitchen build-out, health permits and hiring all take time after the shell of a building is done.

Things to watch over the next several months: the names of the other two approved businesses, whether the four incubator stalls fill up, a grand opening date for the hall itself, and an opening date for Gritz Cafe Express. FOX5 also reported in March that outreach was underway to find community members, especially small business owners, to take part. That suggests more tenant approvals may come before the council in the months ahead [NOT VERIFIED]. City Council agendas are public, so new tenant votes will show up there first.

It is also worth watching how the incubator model plays out. The four small business stalls are meant to be a starting point, not a forever home. Cherry told FOX5 the goal is for those businesses to move into larger spaces in the community after a couple of years. That means the real test of The Good Word may come in 2028 and 2029, when the first group of incubator businesses is ready to leave. If they open their own shops on nearby streets, the neighborhood gains storefronts. If they leave the area, the benefit is smaller. Nobody can know that yet, but it is the part of the plan that will show whether the hall is working.

Food stalls inside an indoor market hall, similar to the vendor layout planned for The Good Word in the Historic Westside

Ryan's Take

Neighborhoods change from the ground floor up. Big projects get the headlines, but what people feel day to day is whether there is a good place to get breakfast, a spot to meet a friend, and a reason to walk down the block. A long-running local favorite choosing to expand a few streets from where it started tells you that a business owner who knows the area well sees enough demand to grow there. That is a more honest signal than any rendering.

For homeowners, renters and anyone watching the Westside, the useful thing is to track what actually opens and when. New workforce apartments, the Stew's Stix training cafe, a planned CSN campus and now a food hall with a well-known anchor are all pointing in the same direction. None of that guarantees anything about home values, and it is too early to say how much it changes the area. But amenities like these are what people ask about when they are deciding where to live. If you own in or near the Historic Westside, or you are thinking about buying close to downtown, it is worth keeping an eye on how this block fills in through 2027.

Friends sitting around a table sharing food, the kind of community gathering The Good Word market hall is designed to host

What You Can Do

The easiest thing you can do is go eat at Gritz Cafe now. It is at 1911 Stella Lake St., Suite 150, near Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards. Hours have changed over the years, so check the cafe's website at gritzcafe.com before you go [NOT VERIFIED: current hours]. Supporting a local business before it expands is the best way to help it succeed after.

You can also stop by Stew's Stix Cafe at the Historic Westside School, 330 W. Washington Ave., once it opens on Oct. 13. If you are a cook, baker or small food vendor who has thought about a stall of your own, keep an eye on the City of Las Vegas Economic and Urban Development Department and Neighborhood Services. FOX5 reported those two offices are running The Good Word, so they are the right place to ask about incubator space.

Finally, if you care about what goes into the neighborhood, follow the Las Vegas City Council agendas. Tenant approvals for The Good Word go through the council, and residents can comment at public meetings. Showing up, or even reading the agenda, is how you find out what is coming before it opens.

Have questions about how this affects your home or neighborhood? Reach out to Ryan Rose or text/call 702-747-5921 anytime.