The Hideaway | 1439 Odenton Road, Odenton | 410-874-7300 | hideawayodenton.com
The Hideaway’s owner, Bob Krohn, was in his late-50s when he decided to turn his hobby of cooking into a profession.
So, he embarked on a crash course on barbecue. He read dozens of books, constantly watched cooking shows, and was particularly influenced by the Food Network’s Myron Mixon, a celebrity chef and four-time barbecue World Champion.
“I actually went to Myron’s house in Georgia for three days,” Krohn says of the workshop he attended. “He gives you the enthusiasm and the knowledge of the really fine details to make sure you come up with the best.”
Krohn finally jumped into the restaurant business, opening the Smokehouse in Annapolis in 2013. Two years later, he bought The Hideaway in Odenton and sold the Smokehouse, which heinto a popular destination. Beside the food, Krohn says part of the restaurant’s appeal is its out-of-the way location.
“As a restaurant and bar, the average of food sales to alcohol sales varies enormously,” he says. “Our food sales are way out proportion to a normal bar. We have about 70 percent food to 30 percent alcohol. The reason for that is because everybody loves the food so much.”
We recently sat down to talk to Krohn about his succulent barbecue, his extensive selection of bourbons, and the history of The Hideaway.
Tell me about the history of the restaurant? It was previously called Jim’s Hideaway. Originally, it was a little front bar and an apartment upstairs going back almost 100 years. In the early ’70s, a guy bought it and called it Jim’s Hideaway. It was nothing but a little area in the front bar. He went on to build a large dining room and what we consider the main bar. Jim’s Hideaway was the place to go for crabs and shrimp. People would come from all over. After Jim died around 2000, there were several owners and the building fell into disrepair. It just died. When I got it, I decided I didn’t want to get rid of the name because of its history. We called it The Hideaway.
How would you describe your barbeque? We have barbeque from all over the place. The pulled pork people might think of as Southern or Memphis. The ribs you would think of as St. Louis or Southern. The brisket, however, is known from Texas and the West. All these items are smoked over pecan wood at a low temperature. We take the extra time to make the barbeque better. It’s not about spending more money to make it better, but to give it more time and attention.
What is the biggest challenge in making consistently good barbeque? When you are talking about barbeque, it is critical you be consistent every single time because if the customers come in and if they love it, they expect to it be exactly the same the next time. It’s very important to me to keep the temperature the same every single time. So, we make sure to hold the temperature at 225 degrees and we only vary it five degrees in either direction. Then you have to watch the time very closely. It’s a time and temperature thing. When you think you are getting close to the end and it’s ready, we always take the temperature of the meat and do something to feel it and make sure it’s done.
What is your best-selling item? It’s the wings. They are first dry rubbed, then put in a smoker over pecan wood until they are fully cooked. When they are ordered, they are put in the fryer for about three minutes to crisp up the skin and caramelize some of the sugar that’s in the rub. They are, by far, the most popular item.
What else are customer favorites? After the wings, there are three things tied almost to the dollar in sales. The smoked fried chicken is prepared the same way as the wings. It’s half a chicken. The ribs and the sampler are the others. The sampler has a couple of ribs, pulled pork, a couple of wings, and two sides. The ribs are St. Louis cut pork ribs. They are dry rubbed with our own special sauce. There are 18 different ingredients in the rub. They sit in the cooler all night soaking up all the flavor. They go into a smoker over pecan wood for five and a half hours. When ordered, they are put in a 500-degree oven for about three minutes to bring them up to a mouth-watering finish.
How do you keep the customers coming back? The food. We go out of the way for that. Once you keep your food quality up and it’s tasty, it’s very important to make sure the customers feel comfortable. Customers say it a lot that they are comfortable. I go around to the tables greeting everybody, and make sure they feel wanted.
What did you do before you got into the restaurant business? I was a general manager of a number of large manufacturing facilities. In that job, you managed employees and a process. You make sure the product you are making stays perfect. A lot of these things I learned in manufacturing facilities has translated into the restaurants.
What made you decide to jump from one profession to the other? I lived in Annapolis down toward Arundel on the Bay. Back then, there was very little choice in what to eat down there. I kind of played this game with myself for a couple of years: was I going to open a restaurant or not and what would it be if I did? I went for it. I thought about what type of restaurant would be good for my talent. The first thing I thought about was barbecue because I wouldn’t have to have all kinds of sauté pans and people who know French cooking.
How did you come about to feature so many bourbons? Is that a big draw? That’s mostly my son and partner Michael. Michael did something similar that I did. When he decided to learn about the bar side of the business, he studied night and day. He has studied thousands of hours. We have about 50 bourbons. Michael can tell you where every one of them comes from, how they are made, and the different types of bourbons and scotches. Bourbons are very popular in our place. Now, when I drink a bourbon, I will generally sip it and enjoy the differences that Michael has taught me.
Why have you decided to open another restaurant in Annapolis? If you are a restaurant owner and successful, you kind of look around to see what spaces might be open and have the infrastructure in place. I grew up in Annapolis and know the town and people very well. Julep (a Southern Kitchen and Bar) is the new place. It’s Southern food combined with a really good bar. There is just nothing here like it. I just didn’t want to open another barbecue place. So why not specialize in Southern food? I can carry some of my top barbecue choices down from The Hideaway. The Julep features southern food from chicken fried steak to pecan smoked ribs to shrimp and grits.
Succulent Pulled Pork
Ingredients
- Blade in (bone in) pork butt
- (normally 5-7 lbs.)
- Apple cider vinegar
- Apple juice
- Brown sugar-based BBQ rub
Directions
Mix two cups of apple juice and one cup of cider vinegar. With a kitchen injector, inject the pork butt all over, about every one inch apart (and don’t be stingy). Apply a heavy amount of rub all over the pork butt and, if you don’t have a smoker, place in a pan, in a 275-degree oven, and cook until the internal temperature reaches 200 degrees (about 4–6 hours). Remove and let pork rest about 20 minutes. Then pull apart with barbeque “claws” or forks.
