This is quite a blast into the past, covering a moment in Las Vegas time almost 25 years ago. Four of the casinos represented on the first-ever Las Vegas Advisor Top Ten Values list no longer exist. Two have changed hands. And check out the prices from back then!
The only thing that hasn't changed at all is the format of the listings; Even after 24 years and six different incarnations of the LVA, the Top Ten remains the same.
Here's the original Top Ten, with a few comments.
1. Steak Dinner, 10 pm-5:45 am, $2, Horseshoe
This was the famous late-night $2 steak dinner at Binion's, which was the top value, month after month, for nearly 15 years. See QoD 8/12/06 for the whole story.
2. Breakfast 11 pm-7 am, 49 cents, Bingo Palace
The Bingo Palace, a few years later, turned into Palace Station. Graveyard bacon-and-egg specials were four bits in those days; for another four bits, you could get one round the clock.
3. Heineken & Call Drinks, 24 hours, 50 cents, Horseshoe
Binion’s was bargain central in those days, seven years before Benny, the patriarch, passed away. And Anthony Curtis was no less into Heineken back then than he is now.
4. Shrimp Cocktail, 24 hours, 50 cents, Golden Gate
Is this a venerable deal or what? Amazingly, the Golden Gate shrimp cocktail is not only still around, it's still, a mere 280-something months later, in the Top Ten. The price was raised only once, in 1991, and the quality has never diminished. (The hours were cut back a couple years ago.)
5. Double Lobster-Tail Dinner, 5-11 pm, $9.95, El Cortez
Ah, Jackie Gaughan's flagship. The rest of the fleet is no longer under his captainship, but the EC continues to carry on Gaughan’s tradition of old-school meal deals, prices, and hospitality.
6. Saturday-Sunday Champagne Brunch, 10 am-2 pm, $7.95, Sands
This was a fancy weekend brunch at the Sands, which was one of the top joints in town back then. For $8 per person. Those were the days.
7. Dinner Buffet (with coupon), 4 pm-10 pm, $4.95, Frontier
Less than $8 for a fancy brunch, while $5 was a common price for a good weekday dinner buffet. Though for this one, you needed a coupon, which was found in the Frontier’s funbook.
8. Steak & Eggs, 24 hours, $1.88, California
Forty-nine cents for a graveyard bacon-and-eggs. A dollar for b&e anytime. So why not a buck eighty-eight for steak and eggs 24/7?
9. Castle Burgers, 10 am-midnight, 10 cents, Sassy Sally’s
Long-time subscribers won't be surprised by this entry; Anthony Curtis has always had a thing for these diminutive chopped-meat-on-a-bun poppers. These days, the Wynn coffee shop serves up Kobe-beef Castle-type burgers -- three for $15.
10. Ice Cream Cone, 10 am-midnight, 15 cents, Lady Luck
Lady Luck had all kinds of great deals in the old days: dollar foot-long franks, free long-distance phone calls, a Whirlwind of Cash, and ice-cream cones at six for a buck. Maybe they’ll take a hint when the Lady Luck reopens next year.
