A friend of mine decided to take me to Lake Hughes for lunch at this bar. As a first timer - very surprising! I would never have noticed this place (or have gone to Lake Hughes for that matter) if it wasn't for her. The drive through beautiful Lake Hughes is just worth it to stop at this surprising find. Not much to see at first, except for a lot of motorcycles parked in front of this rocky and strange-looking building but as soon as you walk in, the place oozes with live music, chatter and busy bodies. My friend used to work here years ago so introducing me to the folks that run the place was a treat! I ordered the 50/50 and she ordered her fave - the bacon, avocado cheeseburger. Omg, the food is SUPERB! You can taste the smoke-mesquite grilled flavor of the BBQ pulled pork and tri-tip. Needless to say, I was in love...with the food. The folks that run it and serve are GREAT! Plus, there's an Inn upstairs for travelers and a quaint, little gift shop. While walking through the tiny Inn, you can sense that the place is an historic piece in the area preserved over the years. The rooms are stale and dated but it feels like you have stepped back in time, away from the hustle and bustle of modern life. I was enjoying my wanderings and chatting away in the gift shop that I almost - almost got carried away, forgetting about my food. I'm officially attached to this place and I LOVE it! This is a great local hangout, even for a non-biker like myself (or soon-to-be, future biker, ;)). It's a rockin' place to be (pun intended).
Review Source:Fun place with lots of history, good eats, LOTS of tri tip and steak dishes, veggi burgers too. Â Its loud, lots of 'hell's dentist' types of bikers, sport bike guys too. Â Service is a little slow but they're polite so it works out. Â My girlfriends white russian took 15 mins so they gave her a double. Â The toasted green beens are awesome, but be advised, by toasted they mean deep fried.
Review Source:Very interesting and old school biker/ road-side bar in Lake Hughes. Â Had a good lunch here. Â All five of us were happy with our meals: sandwiches and egg breakfasts.
Of interest, on our arrival, there were about fifteen Pasadena Police Department motorcycles parked outside the bar. Â Yes. Â Inside the bar/restaurant, the cops were ordering lunch. Â We asked them, "WTH (heck)?" Â They were on some kind of "training" ride. Â Uh-huh.
Food is average. Staff will have an affair with members of your family (I know from experience). Moderately priced. Friendly owners. It has great potential, but I don't see it ever reaching its potential because of it's immature staff that always seems to be in heat. Fortunately for them, they are the only restaurant in the area so most people don't have any other option.
Review Source:Very cool roadside biker restaurant/bar that welcomes ALL bikes! (cruiser, sport, dirt, dual etc). Dont be fooled by the bikes... this place also welcomes the "non-bikers". very friendly staff and the 50/50 sandwich (half tri-tip and half bbq pulled pork) alone is worth the long ride/drive from Long Beach. live rock music, AWESOME place! 5 stars all the way on service, welcoming attitude, food and environment!
Review Source:Pass. Â
A few of my friends and I set out on our bikes to ride for the afternoon with no plans. Â A hundred or so miles later we passed this place and there were a few other bikes out front so we decided to give it a try.
  As soon as we got inside and sat down the waitress came over and told us to move and walked away.  We weren't sure what was happening or if she was joking so we stayed and she came back and told us to move again, so we did.  But apparently we didn't move far enough because we were told to move again at which time we did not move.
   Shortly thereafter a legion of old, fat bikers came in - covered in Harley-Davidson logos and proceeded to start swilling away.  They made some grumbling noises about "people in their spot" and the waitress actually yelled "I told them to move!"
   The food?  Totally forgettable.  The service speaks for itself.
 Unless you want to get into a grade school squabble with the cool kids, you can just drive right by this place.
I have been by this place countless times, but never when I was hungry. Well, it finally happened. It's a great stop for motorcyclists, with good food and friendly service. Lots of locals add welcoming color.
The patty melt (on rye, as it should be) I had was very good--I'm big on patty melts, and this is one I recommend. However, the fries were lackluster, leaving some room for improvement. I guess I should be glad they weren't great, as there were a lot of them!
Smoking waitress? Now I've seen singing waiters and waitresses, but never seen a smoking waitress. She served patrons out on the patio. Then there was the vroom vroom of the motorcycles starting up. So noise + smoke = decision to sit inside. It's too bad, because the weather on the patio was idyllic.
Otherwise the faultless french fries were awesome. Best ones I have had this year. Not too salty and blazingly hot. Had a veggie burger which was ok, the side of salad was on the smaller side but fresh.
My hiking friend had tuna salad, they gave him a very generous scoop. He said it was fine.
Enjoyed reading the history of this building on the menu. Liked seeing all the speed racer motorcyclist's fashions coming through the door. As we finished a live band started up.
Even the restrooms smelled like cigarette smoke. I think this place could be renamed the smokehouse.
The Rock Inn is a Tavern in the hills along Elizabeth Lake Road  in Lake Hughes California. It is a big stop for Bikers on the weekends and a dinner spot for locals at night. There is a bar, pool tables, and music. Sometimes live bands play, sometimes just the Juke box. The atmosphere is very casual and fun. The burgers are fantastic and fill you up completely. Breakfast Burritos and great and over sized. The folks that work there are always fun, helpful, and very friendly. Love the food, the spot and the atmosphere. There is some history to the place too, and a haunted hotel room above.
Review Source:The best tri-tip barbecue sandwich I have ever enjoyed, in lovely surroundings, with a gracious waitress. Â Driving past during a tour of the San Andreas Fault, we saw the many shiny new motorcycles parked in front and rolled the dice -- and what a stroke of luck! Â Just a terrific roadside tavern, an American tradition that's increasingly difficult to find in our era of generic chain restaurants. Â The Rock Inn is one-of-a-kind. Â Like Newcomb Ranch, this is the kind of place that is worth driving to, as we Californians supposedly say -- just for the experience.
And yes, it sits right atop the San Andreas Fault!
We stopped by this place for lunch on a holiday Monday after 50 miles of driving through the awesome twisties in lambos. Most patrons are motorcyclists so we were the exceptions. Good food that hit the spot after a full morning of driving. Too bad we couldn't drink as we had to drive another 50 miles home.
Review Source:GREAT Roadside Tavern/Biker Bar. Â I always stop there whenever I ride the Lake Hughes/Lake Elizabeth/Bouquet Canyon Loop. Â The locals tolerate the itinerant bikers really well, the food's great, beer's cold and the occasional music is usually pretty good too. Â
It's also a California Historical Landmark, having been there for about a hundred years. Â I think it used to be a stagecoach stop and is also a small hotel with nice, reasonably-priced rooms in case the beer gets the better of you.
Ha ha, I like how Deborah S. says she like's to dress "slutty, just for fun" yet has a picture of her young daughters practically naked as her profile picture. Hmmm... Odd?
Anyways, Rock Inn is okay. It's not the cheapest dive around but it's not expensive either. A lot of bikers on weekends, hillbillies the rest of the time.
They've had a lot of trouble with the law/serving minors/outside drinks. What do you expect. It's a bar. When the owners son is not working, he can usually be found drunk and trying to pick up on young married women.
Not fun for me but if you're looking for cheap-moderately priced booze and horrible karaoke/bands go for it.
The Rock In is best on saturday nights the band starts at 9:00 pm it is always fun try the fried pickles, nothing on draft but the bottle beer is ice cold and the people are all fun, dress kind of  hard core biker or i like slutty, its just fun, everyone buying everyone else drinks. dance play pool or hang out at the tables out back it has so much charm, i love it !great place to have a great time on a saturday night, always make me HAPPY.
Review Source:If you want to experience a biker bar, you've got a couple to choose from in the Antelope Valley. But this one isn't scary!
It's in cute little Lake Hughes, they've got huge burgers for you to enjoy along with a game of pool. During the day at least you can bring kids here, no problem. There's arcade games.
The place has a historic, cozy feel and real traveling bikers do come in for drinks and story-telling time. Cool place.
I haven't stayed at this place before, but the other day as i was riding my motorcycle around, i stopped by this place after about 150 miles of riding. Â The moment I stepped in, i felt like a scene in a movie where people that are from out of town walked into a biker bar at the wrong time, the wrong moment because the music all of a sudden stops and everyone seems to be looking at you. Â I expected to hear, "you're not from around here are you?" or "somebody LOST?"
But instead it was just the band finishing up thier set and their entrance is right next to the stage, so it was all coincidence. Â it's just that the locals around there seem like you walked into a Midwest bar off the side of a round.
I pulled up a chair at a table with a few of my friends and we ordered some drinks to quench our thirst. Â Not beers, no whiskey just a few sodas and glasses of water. Â I'm sure most places would have been upset to be wasting space for such a low tab. Â Especially when we wanted refills... Â But the guy here was so friendly, was glad to oblige and said, "no problem".
A few moments we left and eager to continue our ride when the bartender followed us out and admired our bikes. Â He also made sure we knew where we were going. Â COOL!
I guess L.A. has a few places that hospitality and service still are around.
I love Huell Howser from the public television programs "California's Gold" and "Visiting with Huell Howser." As much as my friends and I like to have fun with his on-camera style and vernacular, he deserves respect because he has never deviated whatsoever from his mission in life, which is to visually document all the wonders of California (both glorious and bizarre).
But Huell has not documented everything as of yet. Case in point.
In the Angeles Mountains just outside of Los Angeles, there are many such gems hidden away on the countless back roads that wind through the mountains, just awaiting discovery.
Before construction of I-5/Grapevine, the most direct route in between Los Angeles and Bakersfield was the legendary Ridge Route, which was the only way to traverse to and fro. Because of the hairpin twists and turns, not to mention the average top speed of the vehicles of the time, a trip through the mountains could take several hours time, or more. So, during this golden age of motoring, an army of filling stations, inns, and rest stops of all types sprung up.
But with the advent of the modern Interstate highway system, the Ridge Route and its subsequent by-ways became obsolete when traveling from city to city. Why would anyone want to take a slow, curvy road to reach their destination, when I-5 was available? So one by one, the hotels, filling stations and resorts began to fade away. Now, there is very little left but crumbling ruins and echoes of the route's glory days. Only the very brave and adventurous will traverse the crumbling trail.
Fortunately, the many by-ways through the mountain still exist and are used daily. Along one of these routes is the Rock Inn.
For nearly eighty years, The Rock Inn location has served travelers in transit, in one form or another, be it for fuel, food, or even to bed-down for the night. It's said to have also been a favored destination for golden-age Hollywood movie stars, looking for a quiet retreat.
Since those days, much has changed, and yet very little has.
From first glance, especially on the weekends, a first-time visitor would easily assume that the Rock Inn is a typical biker bar. But don't let the sea of motorcycles fool you. Yes Virginia, motorcyclists of all types do go here, but it's far more than your average biker-hangout.
Walking through the front door is like a step back in time. One almost expects to see dozens of cowboy hats encircled around smoky poker tables, as old-time piano music plays somewhere in the back. Instead, the smoke free-tables are usually occupied by area locals, bikers, hikers, cyclists, and other outdoor enthusiasts who have stopped to refresh themselves with a cold beverage or something from the grill.
There's a proverb in the motorcycle community that says "Bikes parked out front means good chicken-fried steak inside." This is almost always true. When you're on the road, the last thing you can afford is to be side-lined with some form of stomach problems, or wasting your money on mediocre food. The owners and staff of the Rock Inn know this, and go out of their way to serve up some of the best vittles money can buy. I can personally attest that their cheeseburger in one of the very best I've had in all of Southern California. The Fish and Chips are also highly recommended.
The Rock Inn also has a full bar with a wide variety of drinks. It's not recommended that you imbibe too heavily, as the roads are deceptively curvy in all directions. But if you do, you need not worry. Upstairs are luxurious rooms for you to sleep it off, continue the party, or if you're simply looking for a weekend getaway that's close by.
Overall, The Rock Inn is well worth the journey, and highly recommended.
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