Celine Lee thought it was time to get in the kitchen at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way and shake, rattle, and roll.
Shake up the current menu with some new items.
Rattle those pots and pans while creating innovative dishes.
And roll out a new menu in a few weeks.
Food is as important as music in the iconic nightspot where legendary performers, including Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, and Charlie Rich, have entertained.
“We’re trying to appeal to people who just want to go out and have dinner,” says musician Dale Watson, co-owner of the club with Lee, his wife and fellow musician. “It’s like a supper club. That’s what we’re trying to go for. Have a supper club.”
He adds, “I think that’s something unique for us. Around here, anyway. ’Cause we are a destination place. So they can come out, see a show, and have a meal. It checks all the boxes.”
Hernando’s Hide-A-Way
The destination isn’t as far as some people think. Some think the club is in Hernando, Mississippi, but it’s actually in Whitehaven, Lee says. The club at 3210 Old Hernando Road is only eight minutes from Midtown. And it’s not hidden away. It’s in plain sight once you turn off Elvis Presley Boulevard onto Brooks Road.
In 2019, Watson and Lee, who had been living in Austin, Texas, where they still have a home, bought the circa 1883 building, which originally was a dry goods store. Since opening the following year, Hernando’s Hide-A-Way has become home to even more musicians and performers as well as the home base of the Ameripolitan Music Awards, an annual show featuring rockabilly, outlaw country, and Western swing musicians from all over the world.
Putting in a fully functional kitchen was part of the $40,000 renovation of the whole building. It had “a small dinky kitchen,” Lee says.
She heard from a longtime customer that Hernando’s Hide-A-Way kitchen was a short-order kitchen.
They originally hired a chef, but he moved back to New York after Covid hit, Lee says.
They served “classic burgers, fries, and just bar food, really,” until Lee decided to get busy with the food last May.
Diners can watch the band on screens at their tables
As for the new theme, Lee wanted “an elevated ’50s diner kind of thing.” For instance, they’ll still have milkshakes, but instead of Elvis’ fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, Lee wanted peanut butter and banana empanadas.
The empanadas are one of the items on the special menu honoring Elvis’ January 8th birthday. Also included on the special menu, which will run through January 11th, are “Classic Meatloaf Sandwich,” “Elvis’ Favorite Pound Cake,” and cocktails, including “Bacon Martini,” “Peanut Butter Banana White Russian,” “Hunka Hunka Old Fashioned,” and “Suspicious Minds Sangria.” They also will feature mocktails, Lee says.
Weekly specials and “grab-and-go dinners” are among other innovations planned for the club.
They hired chef Dave Carr last August. A classically trained chef, Carr is a graduate of the old Johnson & Wales University in Miami, Florida. Carr, who was living in Miami, was referred to Lee by Memphis restaurateur Mac Edwards.
Since then, Carr and Edwards have “come up with unique ingredients and recipes for Hernando’s exclusively.”
“We want to make everything from scratch,” Carr says. They want to include bar food “but done right.” He wants “fresh everything” instead of buying “everything frozen.”
He makes his own pulled pork sandwich in house, and he makes his own housemade tortilla chips.
Carr and Lee are planning to offer pickled and fermented items, which will harken to the days when people bought those things at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way when it was a dry goods store.
They also are using tallow in dishes, Carr says. “The flavor is excellent. It’s from beef fat. It’s like lard, but with a cow instead of a pig. It’s supposed to be way better for you than these seed oils.”
And, he says, “We’re reaching out to be environmentally conscious and do it right. Get back into healthy food, healthy eating. And it’s good for you and tastes good.”
They also want to work with farmers so they can feature locally-sourced food and seasonal ingredients.
The recipe for the meatloaf for Elvis’ birthday week menu is from a 1970s cookbook featuring the King’s favorite dishes. “That’s supposedly Elvis’ favorite dish.”
But the idea to feature empanadas was Lee’s idea with Carr’s execution. Peanut butter and banana are squished together and spread out on an empanada shell and fried. It will be served with candied bacon dipping sauce.
In addition to hamburgers and other bar food currently on the menu, Hernando’s Hide-A-Way is featuring a Cuban sandwich. Lee, who is from Miami, and Carr joined forces for the sandwich. “She came up with the idea and I executed it.”
The Cuban is “French’s mustard on a Cuban roll with Swiss cheese, Black Forest ham, and smoked pulled pork.” And pickles, Carr adds.
Hernando’s Hide-A-Way currently is doing a “steak night,” Carr says. The next one will be January 15th. “We like to do steak night about once a month to get the dinner crowd going.”
The dinner coincides with Watson’s monthly Big Band Night, which features a three-piece horn section. “It’s like Frank Sinatra meets Johnny Cash,” Lee says. “Everyone dresses up. It’s like an elevated dinner and show.”
