Golden Gate Hotel and Casino

The Golden Gate Hotel & Casino is located at One Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the United States. A part of the Fremont Street Experience, it is the oldest and smallest hotel (106 rooms) on Fremont Street.

History

It opened in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada. In 1907 it was assigned Las Vegas‘ first telephone with the number 1. In 1931, with gambling being re-legalized in Neveda, the Hotel Nevada was expanded and renamed Sal Sagev (Las Vegas spelled backwards.)

The hotel gained its current name in 1955 when a group of Italian-Americans from San Francisco Bay Area started the Golden Gate Casino. The 106-room, four-story hotel was renovated in 2005.

The Golden Gate was the first to serve a fifty cent shrimp cocktail in 1959, long a Las Vegas cliché. The now 99-cent shrimp cocktail, called the “Original Shrimp Cocktail” on the menu, has become a mainstay of the San Francisco Shrimp Bar and Deli and is a favorite of both locals and tourists. It is what the Golden Gate is best known for.

The Original Shrimp Cocktail consists of a regular-sized sundae glass filled from top to bottom with small salad shrimp and topped with a large dollop of cocktail sauce. Unlike many other Las Vegas establishments that offer a 99-cent shrimp cocktail, the glass is not padded with lettuce or other fillers, which is often cited as the reason for the Original Shrimp Cocktail’s popularity. Three other varieties of the cocktail are available:

* an imitation crab cocktail made with imitation crab in the same fashion as the Original Shrimp Cocktail, 99 cents

* a combination crab-and shrimp cocktail made with small salad shrimp atop imitation crab, $1.99

* the “Big” Shrimp Cocktail, made like the original, but using larger-sized shrimp, $2.99

Despite the varieties available, the Original Shrimp Cocktail is still the biggest seller at the San Francisco Shrimp Bar and Deli. Two tons of shrimp are served there every week.

Movie history

It appeared, along with many other classic Fremont Street casinos, in the film Honey, I Blew Up the Kid.