Innovation may be the mother of invention, but sometimes it’s born out of hunger. The Las Vegas buffet was the brainchild of Herb McDonald, entertainment manager and publicist of the El Rancho Vegas, the first resort hotel on what would grow up to be the Las Vegas Strip. Late one night in 1946, after the kitchen closed, McDonald went to the back, grabbed a collection of cold cuts, cheeses and breads, and set them on a bar to make himself a sandwich. Hungry late-night patrons observed the spread and asked if they too could buy a sandwich. Seeing he was onto something, McDonald set up a permanent late-night layout called the Chuck Wagon. According to tastingtable.com “The brilliance of El Rancho’s buffet lay not only in keeping visitors in the casino – there was no need to leave the building for dinner – but also in how the simple lineup of refreshments got gamblers back to their games more quickly than a meal at a full-service restaurant. The $1 tab almost certainly cost the casino money, but the house still won as long as customers kept playing slots on full stomachs.”
The economic calendar proffers a buffet of its own, so much so that Jonathan often feels like he’s penning Feathers inside a casino and needs to get out more. Leaning on his 35-plus years as a macro guy, his U.S. indicator of choice Thursday was the Producer Price Index (PPI). With too many series to digest, today’s quad has us spooning out four dishes that quell our rumbling stomachs and tell four different stories.
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