Originally Posted by redietz View Post
Originally Posted by mickeycrimm View Post
I ate the one pound hot dog for a buck at Westward Ho on many a day too.
I remember those!

Count me in also for the Gold Spike. They had some ridiculous specials. I think if you stayed there, you got 2-for-1, so I'd lug both back to my room, which was usually a corner room with a big canopy bed. Of course, you had to get a phone at the front desk to take back to the room with you. Guests must have made off with too many phones?

Back when I was 24 or 25, I stayed at the Downtowner for a couple months. A bit rough, but they gave you breakfast coupons every day. I don't remember if the coupons were for the El Cortez or the Gold Spike. I ate often enough at both places that I don't have a clear memory of where I used those coupons.
You guys are bringing back a lot of old memories. Even though I was on the street in those days I was eating very well. It was extremely cheap if you knew how to work it. There were a couple of things going on at the Western. There were five bingo sessions a day where it cost $1 to play, 8AM, 11AM, 2PM, 7PM, 9PM. There 10 bingo games where they gave away $10 to $20 per game except for 2 games where they gave away El Cortez Fun Books. The Funbooks had 2 breakfasts at the El Cortez, this was the $1 breakfast, 2 dinners at Roberta's, also in the El Cortez, and 2 comps for a burger and fries at the Plaza.

The bingo was a Jackie Gaughan loss leader to get people in playing video poker. No one could dominate. You were restricted to 6 cards every session. So everyone had an equal chance. There were usually 40 to 50 people per session. It was the same old regulars so everybody knew everybody. And we partnered up to smooth out the variance. Backpack Phil was my partner. We paid a dollar each and split whatever we won. By the math we figured to hit a bingo about every two sessions with a cost of $4. It was my first advantage play, albeit it a meager one.