Las Vegas, Nevada: This city is known for gambling, entertainment and strippers…I mean showgirls. But we are also known for some damn good food. Yep, Vegas is also known for its culinary prowess. We have some of the best restaurants and fine dining choices in the world. Ands the most famous thing this city serves, besides bad beats, is shrimp cocktail.
True, we may not have a lot of .99 cent choices anymore, but do you really want to risk your life over the bottom feeder? I meant the shrimp, not your ex.
Anyways, Vegas has a storied history with the little and sometimes not so little prawns. A Raw headless delicacy shrimp cocktail made its mark in Sin City. According to Delishably, sure, some say the dish was first introduced to the public during prohibition as an oyster cocktail. Others say it was first invented in San Francisco, when a miner took raw oysters and dipped them in ketchup. That just sounds nasty, but I digress.
Shrimp Cocktail Is No Pip-Squeak
According to Food Republic, shrimp cocktail may have come from prohibition or a miner in San Francisco. But it wasn’t until the dish made its way to Vegas, and shrimp became the main ingredient that it became popular.
Related: The 5 Best Pizzas In Las Vegas
According to Golden Gate Casino’s website, in the 1950’s casino owner Emilio “Gumba” Giorgetti was catching some grief from local authorities here in Las Vegas because they didn’t think he should operate a casino. So “Gumba” contacted his Bay Area lawyer for advice on how to proceed. His lawyer put together a group of San Francisco investors and they began to look for a new business venture. They found it at a casino called Sal Sagev, which is Las Vegas backwards. They leased the first floor of the casino, and eventually named it The Golden Gate.
One of the partners in the Golden Gate, Italo Ghelfi, introduced the .50 cent shrimp cocktail in 1959, as a promotional item. It clearly became a huge hit, according to the GOlden Gate Casino.
And here we are today. The Shrimp Cocktail capital of the world. Well, I don’t know if we really are, but we are the entertainment and sports capital. So, we might as well add shrimp to that.
Anyways, here’s my five favorite Shrimp Cocktails in Las Vegas