On the corner of Carson and 7th streets in downtown Las Vegas, tucked below the Park Avenue Apartments’ faded teal sign, is a small restaurant under a black awning. From a distance, if you noticed it at all, it could be the restaurant of an outdated motel, just another anonymous greasy spoon. But inside the eatery, Las Vegas business owners, entrepreneurs, and tourists sit around clean white tables in red Emeco chairs. The space is brightly lit with bulbs bared in birdcage chandeliers. Indoor plants spill out of planters fashioned from found wood planks. On the menu are truffled egg sandwiches with wild mushrooms and the house specialty, huevos motulenos, two eggs topped with Mexican chili and sautéed bananas on corn tortillas.
This is Eat, one of Sin City’s newest and most notable restaurants. It is also the first venture of the Downtown Project, an amorphous group of investors and urban thinkers created—and largely funded—by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. By backing Eat, the group, which has allotted $350 million to revitalize downtown Las Vegas, showed locals—and all those watching—that the planned developments were not a millionaire’s land grab but a tangible commitment to the community and authentic place-making.