The Gold 'N Silver's motto is simple: “Like home, we never close.”
Located on Fourth Street near Keystone Avenue in Reno, Gold 'N Silver is known for being open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no matter what the weather looks like outside. Since it first opened its doors, the restaurant has become the place for state legislators to drink coffee while talking politics and for parents to take their children out for dinner.
It all began in 1956, when the Parker brothers decided to open a casual dining restaurant in Reno. In 1962, one of the brothers died, and his family decided to sell the restaurant to Charles Paine and Floyd Nye. Floyd ran the day-to-day operations, while Charles was an absentee owner.
Charles invited his son, Jeff, to become a partner in the business in April 1989. Having spent several years eating at the restaurant while he was visiting from the Bay Area, Jeff agreed. Unlike his father, Jeff decided to become a part of the operations at the restaurant. When Charles died in 1996, Jeff bought his share. A few years later, Floyd decided to retire, and Jeff bought out Floyd's share, making him the sole owner of the Gold 'N Silver.
The Gold 'N Silver advertises itself as the oldest 24-hour restaurant in the area, and so far no one has contested this fact. Paine says they base their assessment on when the restaurant opened and if it has been in the same location since its opening. The only restaurant that could have given the Gold 'N Silver a run for its money was the Liberty Belle Saloon, which closed its doors in 2005.
In its 54-year history, the Gold 'N Silver has closed only once, in the 1970s, to give the employees a day off on Christmas. During the 24-hour period that the restaurant was shut, it was broken into. While the thieves only made out with a small amount of money, the damage done to the restaurant was much more expensive.
Since that day, the Gold 'N Silver's doors have remained open.
While there have been three remodels of the restaurant and various changes to the menu since the 1956 opening, Jeff says that the heart of the Gold 'N Silver—good food and good service—has remained the same.
“For us, the success of our restaurant depends on the people: the customers and the staff,” he says.
The Gold 'N Silver is a restaurant for the locals. Sit down at a booth and talk to the people next to you. Chances are, they can tell you a story about how their grandparents took them there as children or how they used to sit by the large window drinking milkshakes in the 1950s.
This appreciation of what the Gold 'N Silver is and what it has to offer was shown off on the Food Network's television show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Jeff was first contacted by the show's production company in summer 2009, after a friend's daughter e-mailed producers and told them about the Gold 'N Silver. The crew filmed its segments in January 2010, and the footage aired later that year.
Jeff commented that the program definitely adds “something interesting to the history of the Gold 'N Silver.”
None at this time.