Cook's Corner Bar

Log Item: Cook's Corner Bar was constructed in 1884, which may make it one of the oldest bars in Orange County. It clearly pre-dates motorcycles. It's the best known motorcycle bar in Orange County. Depending on when you go, there will be various and sundry gucci bikers (accountants and lawyers on expensive dressed Harley Davidsons) and there may also be gang bikers on rat bikes. 

I first went to Cook's Corner when I rode with the Hessians Motorcycle Club (gang) in the early 1990's after I returned from the First Gulf War. The Hessians showed up every Wednesday for dollar beer, free spaghetti and a wet t-shirt contest. The first time I was there, I was selected to judge the wet t-shirt contest. Which only goes to show that the management of Cook's Corner Bar have excellent taste in judges.

Today I made the jaunt there for lunch and to check the place out.  There is almost something "wrong" with going to Cook's on a Ducati. I can't define it more closely than that. The staff served me despite the fact that I had a full face helmet and rode a Ducati Diavel, which shows that they're open minded. Unlike homosexuals, I don't think that they have to sell to people who ride Italian bikes. We should be a protected class that gets free cheese and Obamaphones, but we're not.

The Devil, parked at Cook's Corner

I ate my hamburger (5 on a 10 scale) there on the patio. After lunch, I made a detour down Silverado Canyon Road - through the old mining town of Silverado. Even though people relate Orange County, California to Disneyland, Angel Stadium and the beach cities, there is an interesting history behind the rivers that were mined for silver and some hard rock mines as well. 

Such is the nature of Silverado, a town that winds with the river for about five miles. It's a narrow canyon road with homes on each side and one small market, now out of businesses and in disrepair. There is a cafe, which I stopped at some time ago. When I drove by it today there was one Harley Davidson motorcycle parked there with a dirtbag biker sitting on the porch.

The town was established in 1878, just a few years before Cook's Corner Bar (about five miles away as the buzzard flies) was built. Remnants of mining operations such as the Blue Light Mine are still scattered in the area. Timber was harvested for use by the railroad. Coal was mined near by. Ancient sea life fossils can be found within the sandstone cliffs in the area. During Spanish rule, the canyon was visited by Spanish explorers and was known by the name Cañada de la Madera (Timber Canyon). The needs of the mines took all of the old growth timber. Eventually Silverado Canyon Road turns from a two lane paved road into a Forrest Service dirt road. If I wanted to take the dirt road into the Cleveland National Forrest, the roads would dump me out next to where I live.  I opted to stay on hardball.