With current posts of mine bemoaning the loss of true Vegas food bargains, my El Rancho Vegas menu hanging in my kitchen caught my eye.
The El Rancho Vegas, notable as the first strip resort, was in business from 1941 to 1960, until in burned to the ground in spectacular fashion.
http://gaming.unlv.edu/ElRanchoVegas/story.html
My menu probably dates from the late 1950's when a dime could still buy you a cup of coffee. Well, actually, on this breakfast menu (served until 5pm) coffee with your meal would cost you .15 cents, while a full pot could be had for .25 cents.
A plain omelette would cost you $1.00 and that doesn't seem too bad, except when you figure that today, roughly 40 years later you can still buy breakfast sandwiches from your favorite drive-thru off the dollar menu.
It made me stop and think about the rate of inflation, and how it really applied to the Vegas Food Special.
I'm not quite bright enough to figure out inflation rates for the past 40 years, but I did find this handy dandy list online of what common things cost in 1958 --
Average income: $4,650Ford car: $1967-$3929Milk: $1.01Gas: $.24 Bread $.19Postage stamp: $.04 Chef Boy-Ar-Dee spaghetti, 15 1/2 .oz can.: $ .19Corned Beef: $.59 lb.Swiss Steak: $.75 lb.Libby Tomato Juice, 5 (46 .oz) cans: $1.00Kraft Carmels, 1 lb pkg: $.37Milk: $.42 half gal.Uncle Ben’s Rice, 14 oz box - $.19Sunkist Oranges, 5 lbs.: $.49Cantaloupe: $.05 lb.Celery: $.04 lb.Tuition at Harvard: $1,250 yr.Nathan's Hot Dog: $.25Roundtrip airfare London to New York: $453
At first blush you can quickly conclude that stuff costs roughly 10 times today what it did in 1958, or at least a car, a postage stamp, a can of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, and a Nathan's Hot Dog does. I'm pretty sure Harvard tuition now costs more than $12,500. but on the other hand, I'm confident I would have quite a few new cars to chose from in the $20 to $40K range.
If I apply the ten times rule to my El Rancho Breakfast menu -- the Club Breakfasts would run from $7.50 to $11.85 today. That seems pretty cheap for room service, but rather high for a coffee shop.
As you can see from the El Rancho Buffet ad on this page a buck for a buffet is a pretty good deal, but today you can still get most lunch buffets for under $10.
In fact the El Rancho invented the Vegas Buffet, and from Gambling Magazine 2002 this is how it happened -- The birth of the buffet in Las Vegas is attributed to the late publicist Herb McDonald, who inspired the all-you-can-eat buffet in 1946 more out of hunger than genius. One night while working late at the El Rancho Hotel, McDonald brought some cheese and cold cuts from the kitchen and laid them out on the bar to make a sandwich. Gamblers walking by said they were hungry, and the buffet was born. Others attribute the buffet to the owner of El Rancho, but all agree it was an immediate hit, and buffets have been synonymous with Vegas ever since.
Food has always been considered a "loss leader" in Sin City -- and casino operators were more than happy to suffer if it equated to customer losses on the gaming floor.
But back to my El Rancho Vegas Menu. Today I would think twice before ordering a Club Breakfast Number Three: One Egg with Bacon or Sausage, served with Toast & Marmalade, Coffee or Milk for $11.35, and I certainly wouldn't pay $2.50 for a slice of dry toast, or $5.00 for a glass of milk.
I wonder if food was comped in 1958 at the rate it is today. I can certainly attest that my free comped buffets have cost me dearly as I've walked out of the casino many a night $100 or more lighter in the wallet.
In conclusion I think the Good Old Days weren't quite as good or as cheap as we remember, and even accounting for inflation, there are still plenty of food bargains to be had in Vegas, even if it means you have to hit the drive-thru.
The El Rancho Vegas, notable as the first strip resort, was in business from 1941 to 1960, until in burned to the ground in spectacular fashion.
http://gaming.unlv.edu/ElRanchoVegas/story.html
My menu probably dates from the late 1950's when a dime could still buy you a cup of coffee. Well, actually, on this breakfast menu (served until 5pm) coffee with your meal would cost you .15 cents, while a full pot could be had for .25 cents.
A plain omelette would cost you $1.00 and that doesn't seem too bad, except when you figure that today, roughly 40 years later you can still buy breakfast sandwiches from your favorite drive-thru off the dollar menu.
It made me stop and think about the rate of inflation, and how it really applied to the Vegas Food Special.
I'm not quite bright enough to figure out inflation rates for the past 40 years, but I did find this handy dandy list online of what common things cost in 1958 --
Average income: $4,650Ford car: $1967-$3929Milk: $1.01Gas: $.24 Bread $.19Postage stamp: $.04 Chef Boy-Ar-Dee spaghetti, 15 1/2 .oz can.: $ .19Corned Beef: $.59 lb.Swiss Steak: $.75 lb.Libby Tomato Juice, 5 (46 .oz) cans: $1.00Kraft Carmels, 1 lb pkg: $.37Milk: $.42 half gal.Uncle Ben’s Rice, 14 oz box - $.19Sunkist Oranges, 5 lbs.: $.49Cantaloupe: $.05 lb.Celery: $.04 lb.Tuition at Harvard: $1,250 yr.Nathan's Hot Dog: $.25Roundtrip airfare London to New York: $453
At first blush you can quickly conclude that stuff costs roughly 10 times today what it did in 1958, or at least a car, a postage stamp, a can of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, and a Nathan's Hot Dog does. I'm pretty sure Harvard tuition now costs more than $12,500. but on the other hand, I'm confident I would have quite a few new cars to chose from in the $20 to $40K range.
If I apply the ten times rule to my El Rancho Breakfast menu -- the Club Breakfasts would run from $7.50 to $11.85 today. That seems pretty cheap for room service, but rather high for a coffee shop.
As you can see from the El Rancho Buffet ad on this page a buck for a buffet is a pretty good deal, but today you can still get most lunch buffets for under $10.
In fact the El Rancho invented the Vegas Buffet, and from Gambling Magazine 2002 this is how it happened -- The birth of the buffet in Las Vegas is attributed to the late publicist Herb McDonald, who inspired the all-you-can-eat buffet in 1946 more out of hunger than genius. One night while working late at the El Rancho Hotel, McDonald brought some cheese and cold cuts from the kitchen and laid them out on the bar to make a sandwich. Gamblers walking by said they were hungry, and the buffet was born. Others attribute the buffet to the owner of El Rancho, but all agree it was an immediate hit, and buffets have been synonymous with Vegas ever since.
Food has always been considered a "loss leader" in Sin City -- and casino operators were more than happy to suffer if it equated to customer losses on the gaming floor.
But back to my El Rancho Vegas Menu. Today I would think twice before ordering a Club Breakfast Number Three: One Egg with Bacon or Sausage, served with Toast & Marmalade, Coffee or Milk for $11.35, and I certainly wouldn't pay $2.50 for a slice of dry toast, or $5.00 for a glass of milk.
I wonder if food was comped in 1958 at the rate it is today. I can certainly attest that my free comped buffets have cost me dearly as I've walked out of the casino many a night $100 or more lighter in the wallet.
In conclusion I think the Good Old Days weren't quite as good or as cheap as we remember, and even accounting for inflation, there are still plenty of food bargains to be had in Vegas, even if it means you have to hit the drive-thru.
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