These worthy SF-to-LA detours will turn your drive into an adventure

Anyone who has done the drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles becomes acquainted with the classic stops, especially the ones along Interstate 5. Whether it’s the unique odor of cow manure or the peculiar architecture of a giant windmill, places like Harris Ranch and Pea Soup Andersen’s are hard to forget. But just because they’re there — and they’re memorable — doesn’t make them the best places to break from the drive.

Here, we present our five favorite detours off I-5 and Highway 101 into smaller towns with restaurants that have stood the test of time. These spots are absolutely worth pulling a bit farther off the freeway for, and will turn your there-and-back slog into a mini-road trip adventure. (If you’re looking for the basics, these are our favorite SF-to-LA food stops on the two main highways.)

Smack in the middle of East Bakersfield neighborhood Old Town Kern is a 136-year-old restaurant — Pyrenees Cafe — that wowed Guy Fieri and continues to draw crowds. Central California editor Andrew Pridgen calls it “one of Central California’s culinary cathedrals.” He also describes it as “a scene” on Thursday through Saturday nights, though the restaurant serves three meals a day (the restaurant is closed Sunday to Wednesday). A destination for both longtime locals and transplants from SF or LA, it serves favorites like oxtail stew, a Basque classic, and garlic fried chicken, the dish that Fieri raved about on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” Evenings mean live music and lively regulars around the bar, mornings are for coffee, breakfast and maybe a cocktail as those in agricultural work finish their shifts. 

“Red House BBQ isn’t just some pit stop between Bakersfield and Barstow for weary holiday travelers,” Southern California Bureau Chief Farley Elliott writes. It’s actually one of the only Indigenous-owned restaurants in the entire state, and the only one in SoCal. Owner Mano Lujan serves up fry bread tacos, venison steaks and smoked buffalo in line with his Lakota heritage, but also has on offer all the classics of American barbecue: pulled pork, beef brisket and pastrami. And it’s all cooked over California live oak. Get lucky with the calendar and you could light on a celebration of Indigenous heritage on one of the restaurant’s “Native Nights,” which have featured performances by Aztec dancers and Native American drummers.

For Bakersfield locals, the fourth-generation Italian restaurant, deli and grocery Luigi’s is the go-to place for home-cooked Italian meals, whether that means a long Sunday lunch with wild mushroom agnolotti or a quart of minestrone to go. For day-trippers, the classic choice might be the Luigi sandwich: dry and cotto salami, mortadella, provolone, swiss, mustard, lettuce, onion and Luigi’s special sauce on a sourdough roll that’s baked daily nearby. But no matter what you order, you’re in a place of history: Along with Molinari Delicatessen in San Francisco, Luigi’s is one of the oldest family-run delis in the United States, having opened in 1910. “We do have a great little jewel here,” owner Gino Valpredo told SFGATE. 

Paula’s pancakes have been described as “the best” by many a Yelp and Tripadvisor poster and they’re not that far from 101 in a town that, thankfully, offers free parking everywhere: Danish-heritage-influenced Solvang. You’ll be even more grateful for that when you actually get to Paula’s, which is notable from the outside mainly for its long line. The wait goes fast, though, and you’ll soon be in front of a worthy stack — be they large, thin, crepe-style Danish pancakes or the more traditional buttermilk variety. “They’re simple, not too fussy, the epitome of what a pancake should be,” writes Pridgen. “They conjure up the memories of all the pancakes that we’ve eaten.”

Once labeled by the Santa Barbara Independent a “beloved steakhouse and raucous saloon,” the original Zaca Creek captured the Santa Ynez Valley’s Wild West vibes from the 1960s until it closed in 2001. But the revived joint, the Tavern at Zaca Creek, has preserved the bullet holes in the wall from the original roadhouse, among other relics. Today’s version of the community landmark serves local Santa Barbara seafood like spiny lobsters, Central Coast produce and aged, full-blood wagyu beef from just minutes down the road. “You could feel that everybody had just been waiting for almost two decades for it to reopen,” co-owner Stephen Villa told Disneyland editor Julie Tremaine when she stopped by for a meal.