- -JHE LAST WORD
Beef Wellington and
coin-op amusement
I
don't know if it 's because of my
French descent, or the fact that I live
in a food-crazy town like N~w Orleans.
For whatever reason, I simply love to
eat. I make no bones about it; there are
few things in this world better than roast
beefpo-boys, barbequed shrimp, boiled
crawfish, or beignets with coffee and
chicory.
Because of my current rung on the
money-making ladder (toward the bot-
tom; get the hint, boss?), I don't splurge
too often on expensive, gourmet food .
When I do, however, one of my favorite
places to visit is a grocery/gourmet-
food-to-go store in uptown New
Orleans. They carry all sorts of im-
ported pastas , c heeses, sp ices,
chocolates , etc.
The most mouth-watering treats,
though , are fo und within the cold
display case. There, in all their splen-
dor, are such delectable entrees as roast
duck I 'orange, ginger-apricot chicken,
stuffed manicotti , French onion soup,
and my all-time, bursting-with-calories
favorite, beefWellington.
For those not fami liar with this grand
dish , it consists of a thick slice of beef
tenderloin that's been wrapped with
pate de fois gras, mushrooms, and a
well-seasoned brown sauce. These in-
gredients are placed within puff pastry
and baked. If God hosts dinner parties
in heaven , I would imagine that beef
We llington highlights the meal.
Anyway, the last time I popped in this
store for dinner, I noticed that the price
of the Wellington had gone up by close
to two dollars. I didn't mind shelling out
the extra money for such a glorious
172 PLAY METER/ December 1989
dish, but apparently I was in the mjnori-
ty among the store's customers. Nor-
mally, the Wellingtons get devoured in
a hurry; you' re lucky to grab one before
they run out. But on this occasion there
were seven or eight individual Well-
ingtons left on the tray.
''Thanks for ordering one; the chef
has been pretty depressed lately because
no one is buying them , and they are so
much trouble to prepare,'' said the
owner of the establishment. " Don' t
mention it, " I replied , wiping the last
dab of sauce from the corner of my
mouth . I started to ask if there would be
a close-out sale on Well ingtons- you
know , like buy one , get two free-but
the timing ~ee med inappropriate. A
sharp knife was firmly clenched bet-
ween her flour-caked fingers.
Being the nosy type, I asked her if she
thought the higher prices had anything
to do with the slow-moving beef. ''Yes,
that must be why, because people were
buying plenty of them before," she
sajd. Why, then , the big price hike?
Why not lower it?
The proprietor 's ex planation was
simple . Her costs had gone up; after all ,
she pointed out, beef tenderloin and pate
are not inexpensive items. It cost her
more to create the dish, so quite natural-
ly , she passed it on to her customers.
Her last remark was what stuck with
me: " People are funny . They realize
that prices have gone up on some items
and pay the extra amount without a
word . But for other things, they aren't
willing to budge an inch. I think my
We ll i ngtons fall into that category."
Operators, unfortunately, know just
how that woman feels. As operating
costs escalate, they seek a logical way
to stem the tide. The most logical
answer lies in increasing the price-per-
play on the machines. Experts estimate
that a quarter is worth seven cents today,
yet most coin-op games are mjred on
that price setting . When today 's
operator tries to convert to 50-cent play,
the location owner quakes in his boots.
"Nobody's touching the machine now;
put it back to a quarter,' ' he cries. Sad-
ly , he 's right; the customer won'tdrop
that extra quarter into the game.
Is the dollar coin the way out? By all
indications, yes. But to me, that's only
half of the equation . The other half
should consist of a massive public rela-
tions push that points out not only the at-
tributes of coin-op entertainment , but
the economics surrounding it.
The end-user must be made to realize
that the games they play are constantly
improving as technological advances
are made. How can they expect to
receive greater and greater entertain-
ment for the same paltry quarter? In a
nutshell , you get what you pay for . The
players have gotten spoiled. They want
to pay ground meat prices for prime beef
Wellington. Too many operators are
struggling to let them continue doing
so. 0
Christopher Caire
News Editor