It can be overwhelming to look at the seemingly endless supply of supercars in the Monterey area during Car Week each August. In fact, you almost get desensitized to seeing “just another Lambo.” That’s part of why I was so drawn to a ragged old truck while exploring the San Francisco Bay Area during my recent trip to the California coast.

Just a few feet from the Pacific Ocean in Half Moon Bay, about 90 miles from Monterey, resides a brown 1960 Ford F-100 at the Miramar Beach Restaurant.

The facility got its start as a hotel and speakeasy in the 1920s. The website explains, “The Miramar Beach Restaurant (known as the Ocean Beach Hotel during this time) was originally designed and built as a Prohibition roadhouse. This meant that in order to keep the contraband hidden during raids, secret compartments and revolving kitchen doors were built into the building. The upstairs of the Miramar served as the Bordello. Ten small rooms each equipped with a sink, a light, hat rack and bell system to the kitchen below allowed the restaurant to serve their customers upstairs.”

This vintage photo (I’ll guess from the 1980s?) was hanging in the hallway:

Today, the place no longer operates as a hotel, but it does offer visitors a robust menu of seafood, steaks, and chowder.

Now, about that “yard art” truck out front. Model year 1960 was the last for the third generation of the popular F-Series. The truck I saw was ratty, but that was part of its appeal. A lot of things had clearly been modified, including, most notably, the bed.

Exterior features included quad headlights, hood “nostrils,” black-finished grille and bumper, driver-side mirror, and five-spoke aluminum wheels. Also, check out the “Back Off!” mud flaps featuring the Tasmanian Devil himself.

Whoever owned the truck was a sports fan, since the dual license plates on the back were affixed in support of the San Francisco Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. One of the plate frames bore the words “Super Dad.”

I was able to peek into the cab long enough to see that it had a black vinyl bench seat, custom gauges, modern radio, and floor-shifted manual transmission. The two primary engine options for the F-100 in 1960 were the 223ci “Mileage Maker” inline-six and the 292ci Y-block V-8.

After feasting my eyes on dozens of brightly colored supercars and white-glove classics, it was refreshing to get up-close and personal with an old workhorse. And by the way, the fish tacos at Miramar Restaurant were amazing.