Columnist Bob Shemeligian: Blue-collar gift ideas in the first Bob Report

Bob Shemeligian

Tuesday, June 3, 1997 | 11:32 a.m.

ONCE AGAIN, the Robb Report has published its "Best of the Best" list.

This is the ninth year the magazine has published its list of "distinctive items" purchased by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger ($38 million Gulfstream jet) and Disney honcho Michael Eisner (Lamborghini Diablo).

"When people feel good about the future, they want the utmost for their hard efforts," Robb Report Associate Publisher Dan Phillips said Sunday.

Right, Dan. I feel good about the future, and I want the utmost for my hard efforts. But if I stay in the newspaper business for the next 20 years, I might be able to afford one 30,000-mile service for Eisner's car at the Lamborghini dealership.

And so, if you are like me and don't really care who is smoking $40 Cohiba cigars at Ruth Chris Steak House, I think you will agree it's time to forget the Robb Report.

In it's place, I offer the Bob Report on the real "Best of the Best" for the hard-working people of Southern Nevada.

The list includes the Tacos Mexico fast-food restaurant at the corner of Valley View and Sahara.

Forget that you think of the film "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" when you see that stuff sizzling on the grill. The place makes the greatest tasting carne asada burrito north of the Rio Grande, for only three bucks and change. Also, the red-hot sauce is unbelievable.

For dessert, I recommend the strawberry shortcake at the Showboat Hotel coffee shop.

They generously pile on the strawberries and real whipped cream for only 95 cents plus tax, and the savings come in real handy when it's time to pay for all those Phen-Fen diet packages.

For entertainment, the Sunspots at the Omaha Lounge at the Plaza hotel-casino have no rivals. At least on this Earth.

Dressed like groomsmen at a '70s wedding and crooning like half-drunk revelers at a karaoke bar in a bad section of Manilla, this group is well worth the no-drink minimum. I recommend it heartily.

As far as adult entertainment goes, forget those gentlemen's emporiums such as the Olympic Garden and Club Paradise. Sure, the dancers have great body parts, but a night of seeing them will cost you an arm and a leg.

May I suggest Larry's Villa, located on scenic West Bonanza Road, not far from the Laundromat and tool rental shop -- so you can enjoy a little entertainment while you wait for your shirts to dry or your chain saw to be sharpened.

Sure, the place looks like it was last inspected by the Health District when Ralph Lamb was sheriff, but the beers are cheap ("Just the bottle, no glass, please") and the dancers actually look like real people -- from a nearby trailer park.

Rounding out the Bob Report is a visit to the observation deck atop the 1,149-foot-high Stratosphere Tower.

For only $5, visitors can view the entire valley and listen to others recount how the first contractor to work on the tower was summarily dismissed after the north leg was improperly aligned, and how the tower almost burned to the ground during construction, and how the company that built it almost went bankrupt.

Think of how excited you'll be when that elevator takes you back down.