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May. 04, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Golden Gate's shrimp cocktail special a sign of times

By HENRY BREAN
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Eddie and Norma Alvarado eat shrimp cocktails Friday at the Golden Gate. After decades of charging 99 cents or less for its signature special, the Golden Gate has raised the price to $1.99.
Photos by John Locher.



The price increase for the shrimp cocktail special did not seem to slow business at Golden Gate's shrimp bar and deli, which sported packed tables and a long line Friday during the lunch hour.

A downtown casino's signature shrimp special just took a giant kick in the tail.

After almost 50 years of selling chilled crustaceans in spicy sauce for less than a dollar, the Golden Gate hotel and casino has raised the price of its shrimp cocktail to $1.99.

"It's certainly not a gasoline-type gouging we're going for here," said Scott DeAngelo, vice president of gaming and marketing for Golden Gate. "It remains a good value, and it remains damn good."

Food and Beverage Director Michael Storm blamed the price increase on a sharp rise in the cost of cold-water shrimp, which have been seriously overfished in some parts of the world.

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    • However, a few of the regulars were ticked off about the new price, even after learning they could still get the shrimp for 99 cents if they joined the casino's free player's club.

    But Ben Norgress has no complaints.

    The retired welding inspector has stopped in at the Golden Gate about twice a week for the past 18 years to play the slots and a little blackjack. Each visit usually involves a meal at the shrimp bar and deli, where his order rarely changes: a draft beer, a bowl of soup and two shrimp cocktails.

    Price hike or not, it's still a good deal, the 86-year-old said.

    "Everything has gone up. What can you do? If I objected to any of it, I'd just stay home and die."

    The 106-room Golden Gate is Las Vegas' oldest hotel-casino. The building opened in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada, its address 1 Fremont Street.

    DeAngelo said a group of Italian-Americans from San Francisco bought the property in 1955. One of them, a man by the name of Italo Gheli, is credited with bringing the shrimp cocktail to the Golden Gate, and Las Vegas as a whole, in 1959.

    Since then, the casino claims to have sold more than 30 million of the cocktails, which cost 50 cents until 1991 and 99 cents until last week.

    DeAngelo said the cocktail itself hasn't changed much over the years. It still is served in what he called a "tulip sundae glass."

    "And we don't use any filler in the glass," Storm added. "It's all shrimp."

    Then there is Golden Gate's special cocktail sauce, a secret recipe that has been closely guarded for decades. All Storm would say about that was, "It's a proprietary sauce. It's our sauce."

    The Golden Gate sells an average of 2,000 shrimp cocktails a day, Storm said. On a busy Saturday during the summer, the total can easily top 3,500, with a line of customers winding through the small, buffet-style restaurant and out onto the casino floor.

    Wyman and Vicki Dobson ate their first Golden Gate shrimp cocktails during a trip to Las Vegas in the late 1960s, back when they still sold for 50 cents.

    The Renton, Wash., couple has been coming back ever since.

    At lunchtime on Friday, they munched their $1.99 shrimp while listening to the Golden Gate's piano player peck out the theme from "Chariots of Fire."

    "Isn't this better than losing money?" Vicki Dobson asked.

    Wyman Dobson said the special at the Golden Gate is well-known back home. Mention you're headed to Las Vegas, and people probably will tell you to go downtown and "have the dollar shrimp," he said.

    Even at the higher price, Vicki Dobson said, the cocktail is still worth recommending.

    "With the way everything else is going up, this doesn't surprise me," she said. "It's still good, and it's still a nice size."

    As broad economic indicators go, the cocktail increase is a little hard to read. It took effect on April 26, a Saturday. The following Monday the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 20 points, though market analysts were slow to blame decline on the rising cost of crustaceans.

    When asked what he makes of the higher-priced cocktail, University of Nevada, Las Vegas economist Keith Schwer chuckled and said, "Hard times hit Vegas."

    The truth is, though, it could be worse.

    If adjusted for inflation, a shrimp cocktail that cost 50 cents in 1959 would cost $3.65 today, said Schwer, who leads UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research.

    By comparison, the 99-cent shrimp cocktail from 1991 would cost $1.55 today based on inflation alone.

    "So they're still below the 1950s price in real terms, but they've raised it slightly above what the 1991 price would be in real terms," Schwer said.

    His only regret is that he and his finance buddies didn't go to the Golden Gate to eat some shrimp before the increase. "Economists like to pay the lowest price," he said.

    If the shrimp cocktail wasn't Golden Gate's signature attraction already, it could be soon.

    The hotel-casino is about to launch a marketing blitz, complete with T-shirts, touting the special as "the best tail in town." The cartoon shrimp pictured on the women's T-shirt sports lipstick, rouge, eyelashes and a beauty mark.

    The Golden Gate also has launched a cross-marketing promotion with the Las Vegas 51s in which fans receive a free shrimp cocktail if the minor league team scores 10 or more runs in a game. That has already happened three times this season, including twice last weekend.

    Even at $1.99, Storm insists the Golden Gate will continue to lose money on every cocktail it serves, though he declined to say how much.

    "It's not a profitable venture," he said. "But it's something we're known for. It's the best in town."

    Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.



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    Brad wrote on May 05, 2008 11:38 AM: I just want to comment on the quote from Food and Beverage Director Michael Storm, that the price is going up because coldwater shrimp is "seriously overfished" in some parts of the world. He obviously has his facts wrong. The higher price of coldwater shrimp is due to increased producer costs ($4/gal fuel), as well as stronger demand in the market place in Europe due to the tariff being relaxed on Canadian shrimp(the biggest supplier in the world).

    The world's coldwater shrimp industry has actually been shrinking over the last decade due to poor market conditions and is just now starting to recover. The fleet has left thousands of tons of product in the water during that time period. The Oregon pink shrimp fishery, whose product is likely being served at the Golden Gate, recently became the first shrimp fishery in the world to be certified by the Marine Stewardship Council as being "well managed and sustainable".

    So enjoy a great bargain in todays world and don't feel bad about how the shrimp that your eating is being caught.


    p wrote on May 05, 2008 09:11 AM: big deal --still a lot cheaper than the rest


    sjr wrote on May 04, 2008 05:19 PM: I beg to differ with Mr. DeAngelo when he says the shrimp cocktails have not changed much. I had my first shrimp coctail there in 1963. They were big, nice shrimp - not the mushy little pile of whatever of shrimp that you need a magnifying glass to see. These min-shrimps definitely do not taste as good as the "original" shrimp cocktail. I used to love the Golden Gate, stayed in the hotel every visit to Las Vegas. Though the staff always seemed on the peculiar side to me, it was a fun place to go. You actually won some jackpots there on mechanical slots! In the years I've been living here, I can't win enough to buy the R-J on the nearest newsrack. I think the Golden Gate is making a mistake. It's what they were known for. Who needs to even go in there now?


    puhlease wrote on May 04, 2008 05:19 PM: The Golden Gate is in "Downtown" Las Vegas. "Downtown" is a euphemism for an aging, nicotine stained, shadow of a Las Vegas that got left behind by Steve Wynn, Harrahs, MGM Mirage, and even the next generation Gaughn family. Jackie Gaughn is holding it down though with such fine establishments as the afore mentioned Gold Spike, the pinnacle of luxury and class, the Union Plaza, and who will ever forget the El Cortez. The mayor is not interested in re-inventing "Downtown" to cater to the Nickles crowd, the homeless, or washed up locals. There isn't a Station Casiono "Downtown" is there?


    carlos wrote on May 04, 2008 04:32 PM: Outragous! Next their going to say theirs no 3.99 steak & eggs buffet at the golden nugett or a 4$ steak at binon's late night! Thank you corporate america, Local casino's isn't that a oxymoran?


    richard wrote on May 04, 2008 04:14 PM: Someone should tell puhlease where the Golden Gate is located.


    puhlease wrote on May 04, 2008 02:51 PM: I wonder how the mayor feels about the rate of growth of "Downtown" with promotions like this. As Menken said, "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of (people who will think cheap, industrially farmed, shrimp is a deal). I am under 70 and prefer south of Sahara to anywhere that close to the "Gold Spike."


    Paul Ferrendelli wrote on May 04, 2008 01:44 PM: J.F. Miller built the hotel and the name was SALGEV


    AP wrote on May 04, 2008 01:11 PM: You can still get the deal if you are a member of the slot club...It's a new club and they are trying to gain membership...every casino it town has deals for slot clubs...why is this a big deal?

    Joe- The extra $1 will change your plans to visit downtown?!? The casinos wouln't want your business anyway.


    Joe wrote on May 04, 2008 12:11 PM: Downtown loses again. All you have to do is read the story itself and see where people have recomended downtown for the specials etc. Specials have been dissaperaing for a long time, as well as the customer base. Like it or not a 99 cent shrimp special sounds appealing for many reasons.Like a Mcdonals double burger for .99 and most expect there to be other things that are more, but a 1.99 special paints the picture of not realy a trip worth venturing down to see.

    Specials are a advertisement in themselves. You have to pay to advertise no matter what inustry you are in, so are you then saying you can not afford to advertise?

    Just the opposite, you cant afford not to advertise, especially when downtown is struggling!!!


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