Hernando’s Hideaway: A Memphis Music Landmark Hiding in Plain Sight

Despite the secretive sounding name, it’s no speakeasy. It’s a honky tonk, soaked in Memphis soul, with just enough of a Texas twist to keep you on your toes. Tucked away just barely off I-55 at the Elvis Presley Blvd exit – yet somehow practically out of sight from everyday traffic – it’s a Memphis music landmark hiding in plain sight.

It's been a while since my first time at Hernando’s Hideaway. But as a contributor to the I Love Memphis Blog, I feel a duty to help others avoid the travesty of waiting as long as I did to make their way to the hidden gem that is the Hideaway. So I happily went back, for you dear reader, to get a little more of its story from bar owner Celine Lee, eat a tasty burger, hear some tunes, and report back.

“This is one of the last places of the old Memphis,” says Robin Wilson, a connoisseur of the city who’d just taken the seat to my right at the bar after a turn dancing a little Texas two-step in a long red dress. She’s a woman old enough to remember nights at places you may have only read about, but young enough to show me a thing or two on the dance floor. Regaling me with the city’s lore, she playfully chided me as a “very bad boy” for not yet making it to one of her other favorite spots around town (a blog post for another time Robin, I promise). Suffice it to say, when it comes to Memphis, I quickly learned she knows her stuff.

To my left was someone else who knew a thing or two about Memphis. Jerry Lee Lewis, in picture form anyway. The legendary – and legendarily wild – piano man hung out at the bar often enough that he once called it his “office.”

He’s just one of many legends whose faces line the ever so perfectly dimly lit walls of Hernando's Hideaway. B.B. King. Fats Domino. Carl Perkins. Rufus Thomas, to name just a few. And of course, the King, Elvis Presley.

“Everybody on the wall has played here,” says Celine Lee from an Elvis themed lounge section of the bar complete with a neon “ELVIS WAS HERE” sign. She owns the bar with her husband Dale Watson, who’s made his own mark as a country music traditionalist and honky tonk enthusiast.

The building’s history as a bar dates back to at least the 50s’. They’ve got the song to prove it. Johnny Burnette, an influential Memphis-born rockabilly artist, sang of “a little spot on the edge of town” called the “Hideaway” in his 1957 single “Rockbilly Boogie.” “Hernando’s” was added to the name after the song “Hernando’s Hideaway” from the movie The Pajama Game became a hit, also in 1957. (The movie’s song wasn’t really about the Memphis bar, but it must’ve sounded fitting enough to the owners at the time.).

Come for the history, stay for the shows

Music is still at the heart of Hernando’s Hideaway. 

“Dale built this room (stage area) because he’s a musician. It’s a musician’s room, for musicians. Musicians love to play this room because it's so intimate,” says Celine, who has an album of her own under her belt but doesn’t record or perform much now, except with Dale.

It’s the kind of place where you can do dinner and a show without having to scream, what Celine calls a “supper club vibe.” The menu features smash burgers and their “signature fire and honey” pulled pork sandwich or nachos, with plans for more elevated fare to come.

The music was certainly alive this particular summer night. A special-event Texas two-step lesson led to people of all stripes and boogie ability dancing the night away to the sounds of Memphis’ Alexis Jade and Nashville’s Mose Wilson. Celine, decked out in cowboy boots, was even kind enough to show me the ropes on the dance floor.

It’s not just about live music though.

You can’t talk about Dale Watson and Hernando’s Hideaway without talking about Chicken S#!t Bingo. What’s that you say? Well, it’s more or less what it sounds like. Get a chicken. Let people buy numbered squares. Feed the chicken. If the chicken poops on the square you bought, bingo! You win cold hard cash.

It may sound strange, but people love Chicken S#!t Bingo. It’s even been featured on PBS’s Wild Travels. The exact origin of the game isn't totally clear, but it was made most famous by Dale and some bar owner friends in Austin, Texas in the early 2000s. Now, they’ve brought the tradition to Memphis. “It’s a kid friendly thing to bring the family to, and it’s just really silly and fun and unique, and the people just love it,” Celine says of the event, which is typically done Sunday afternoons.

Despite its rich history, the bar closed in 2006. It stayed that way until Dale and Celine bought it, re-opened in 2019, and brought the music back to “World Famous” Hernando’s Hideaway.

Now, Celine has ambitious plans to make Hernando’s Hideaway more than a honkytonk. Conscious of its location in Whitehaven, she says she’s developing relationships in the neighborhood where she’s lived off and on over the years in the home she still owns there. (Close to Graceland and a 10-minute drive to Midtown? Win-win.)

Bursting with big ideas, she hopes to turn Hernando’s Hideaway into a community engagement hub of sorts. Drawing on the even deeper history of the building as a woman-owned dry goods store in the 1890s, she’s begun hosting luncheons for women business owners. She’s even considering opening a little neighborhood general store in the original, underutilized portion of the building.

Though Dale is most associated with Austin (the bar proudly stocks Lonestar, “the National Beer of Texas”) he’s had a decades-long soft spot for Memphis after recording at Sun Studio and eventually calling the Bluff City home for a time. Celine, despite having some family in the area, isn’t from Memphis either. But they both “get” Memphis. 

“The soul of the city. You feel it when you’re here, and there’s no denying that. The people are real. The music is real,” she says.

After some ups and downs over the years, the place is under both new management and a much closer eye from Celine and Dale, who sound more committed than ever to being stewards of this iconic spot. 

“I just feel like history is so important, and we want to keep this little piece of history going,” Celine says. “We just felt like it was meant to be that we still have it.”

So, here's an invitation. Go make some new history in a little slice of our old Memphis. I think it's meant to be that we still have it, too. 

To keep up with their schedule of concerts, other events, and yes, Chicken S#!t Bingo visit their website and follow them on social media. 

Curious readers can learn more about the early days of the bar from their online video series exploring its history. For a peek at the bar in all its present glory, check out Memphis’s own Cyrena Wages’ music video for “Find Out,” filmed at Hernando’s Hideaway.