Tip’s Restaurant Logo Tee – Newhall Ranch • Saugus

Back When Tip's Was Our Gateway South

We were just kids — latchkey Gen-Xers with gas money, a Walkman full of mixtapes, and dreams pinned somewhere between the Sunset Strip and San Onofre. Most weekends we’d pile into somebody’s too-hot car and head south from Bakersfield, chasing whatever felt electric: concerts on the Strip, records on Melrose, and saltwater mornings in Huntington.

But no road trip down the 5 was complete without a stop at Tip’s Restaurant in Newhall.

It wasn’t just a pit stop — it was a rite of passage. A neon beacon on the edge of the old world. Inside, the booths were vinyl, the ceiling fans spun slow, and behind the bar was Bobby Batugo, the man, the myth, the mixologist.

Let’s just say Bobby didn’t always card us. And we didn’t ask questions.

His Mai Tai tasted like vacation in a glass: tropical, tart, and just dangerous enough to feel like you were getting away with something — because you were.

If you were lucky (or bold), he might serve you his award-winning creation from 1978:
The Universe

• 1 oz vodka

• 1 oz Midori

• ½ oz pistachio liqueur

• ¾ oz fresh lime juice

• ¾ oz pineapple juice

Shake it over ice, strain it into a coupe, and take a sip. You’ll feel the gears of time click backward.

Now that we’re of age — and then some — we wear this Tip’s Logo Tee not just for the vintage cool, but for the memories. Of highway escapes. Of outlaw cocktails. Of being young, wild, and just south of sensible.

Here’s to Tip’s. Here’s to Bobby. Here’s to the road!