Question of the Day - 06 August 2020

Happy to.

Bob Taylor's Original Ranch House & Supper Club is about 15 miles north of the city (take US 95 past the Santa Fe to Ann Road, go east for a half-mile, look for the sign, and turn left on Rio Vista; it’s three-quarters of a mile to 6250 Rio Vista St., 702/645-1399). It opened in 1955 and has never closed (that we know of) or moved; as such, it's the oldest restaurant in Las Vegas. It hasn't been upgraded much either, but that's a big part of the charm.

It serves lunch and dinner. For both, the prices are the same for appetizers ($5.99 for sauteed mushrooms up to $11.99 for crab cakes), but at lunch you can get one of four salads ($6.99 for the house up to $14.99 for the steak), burgers ($8.99-$10.99), and sandwiches ($9.99-$14.99). At dinner, steaks go for $29.99 for the 8-ounce filet up to $49.99 for the 32-ounce New York (if you finish it all by yourself, you get a free dessert). They also serve chicken ($19.99-$25.99) and shrimp, halibut, crab, scallops, salmon, and lobster ($23.99-$51.99).   

We reviewed it in the April 2017 issue of the Advisor and wrote that the steak isn't the best -- past its prime, so to speak. But these meals come with soup or salad, garlic toast, and choice of potato. Best is to get the salad (the onion soup was brutal), and the twice-baked is the best call in the potato department. That said, being steeped in tradition, with an Old West feel (antique saddles, Western movie posters, and memorabilia), it's worth the experience.   

Bob Taylor's has a colorful history. Bob, whose house was way up in the boonies off the Tonopah Highway (now US 95) in the '40s and early '50s, was a barbecue master, rare in those days. By barbecuing for his friends and family, word of mouth spread around town and strangers started showing up asking for food. With all the demand, he turned his house into a supper club on weekends. 

Bob Taylor himself was a World War II veteran of the U.S. Army Air Corps, an armored gunner and airplane mechanic. When he opened the Supper Club, he brought in aged beef from Chicago Stockyard Packing, cut up all of his own steaks, and personally cooked them over a mesquite coal fire, turning his ranch house into the premier steakhouse in those days. He sold the restaurant in 1980, when he was 58.

Bob had a passion for shooting clay targets and constructed trap and skeet fields on his property. Elvis and Ann-Margret were filmed there shooting skeet in Viva Las Vegas. When Ann was filmed shooting, it was actually Bob breaking the targets just out of sight of the camera. In the '70s, Bob added 20 more trap and skeet fields to the property and hosted some of the most popular trapshooting tournaments in the country, awarding dozens of automobiles and some of the largest cash purses in history. His innovative NFL Pro-Am Tournament in 1977 featured a representative from each of the 26 professional football teams.

Bob Taylor passed away on March 14, 2010, one day short of his 88th birthday. But his name lives on, attached to the oldest -- and perhaps most locally colorful -- restaurant in town. 

And here's a fun fact from Tanya, our wiz of an IT-department manager: "I live right down the street from Bob Taylor's and because it has never moved, it's smack in the middle of a neighborhood and all the neighborhood cats love it. When you go there, it's almost a guarantee that you'll see 5-10 cats hanging out in front. Smart cats -- best scraps in town."