Cold beer, hot chicks at the Hideout

If a biker and new to the San Diego region, it is recommended you plan a ride to the Hideout Steakhouse and Saloon.

Getting there from San Diego means riding one of two practical routes: east through Ramona on Route 78, turning north on Route 79 at Santa Ysabel (just past Dudley’s Bakery), and then west on Route 76; or taking Route 76 east from I-15, riding past Pala, Pauma Valley, and Palomar Mountain. Either way, it is roughly 90 minutes from San Diego. But remain vigilant once in the Lake Henshaw area, because coming from the east there’s just one wooden sign indicating where to turn onto Center Loop.

Riding in from the west, there may (or may not) be a small yellow banner that reads, “Hideout Open.” Of course, you can also just follow the other bikers. Regardless of the route taken, the ride will be enjoyable in this part of the East County: open roads, sweeping curves, and relatively light traffic away from the populated areas. Once finding the turn, it is a short distance to the Hideout.

The best clue that you have arrived will be all the bikes lined up in front of and along the road next to a wooden building displaying the Stars and Stripes and flags for each branch of our U.S. Armed Forces. Most of the bikes will be Harleys and other V-twin cruisers. On a recent Saturday, there were three Corvettes lined up among the bikes.

Existing for bikers, the Hideout is open 2:00–8:00 p.m. on weekdays and 10:00 a.m.–5:00 or 6:00 p.m. (depending on the number of customers) on Saturday and Sunday. The weekends are busy, as plenty of bikers from in and around San Diego hit the roads.

At the Hideout, chrome and leather mix with rustic wood and the smell of burgers cooking in a land where you can imagine early settlers in their wagon trains or John Wayne and Clint Eastwood making western movies.

According to Fred Freering, who has been working at the Hideout for over six years, it was originally a store and a bar, with a gas station located nearby.

A mural painted on an inside wall is dated 1954, attesting to the six-plus decades the main building, with its waterwheel, has been there, in one incarnation or another. All told, the enterprise is around 27 acres, including ten cabins that rent by the month.

The menu is simple: burgers, pulled-pork sandwiches, grilled-chicken sandwiches, chili-cheese fries, bratwurst, and chicken wings, with soda, beer, wine, tea, hard cider, water, and Red Bull to wash it down. You can eat at the bar or one of the tables or just hang around outside with your buddies. Be sure to bring cash, because the Hideout does not take credit or debit cards.

On this latest visit, the average age of fellow bikers was probably somewhere in the 50s or 60s, though riders of all ages were present. With rock music playing in the background, there is definitely a positive vibe to the boisterous nature of the place, inside and out. Commenting specifically on the friendly nature of the Hideout, Freering stated that in the six-plus years he has been working there, he has never seen a fight.