The 2016 Foodie Crawl, an annual benefit for Bend's Community Center, was upon us again. The crawl itself went from 3 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, through most of the downtown eateries. Being the professionals that we are, the Source sent us to investigate.
4 p.m. We got started late, not thinking we would need the entire three hours to eat a ton of food and drink booze and beer. Usually, we're capable of that in mere minutes.
4:10 p.m. Crow's Feet Commons was serving Caribbean green banana bisque with pork belly and yucca root. It was awesome. Pork belly is always a great way to start the day and combined with the creamy and light bisque, smiles abounded. The taster of pFriem Pilsner was equally light, leaving us ready to get heavy.
4:25 p.m. The Liberty Theatre was hosting a few different spots. Broken Top Bottle Shop served a beet and goat cheese crostini with tarragon gastrique that had the earthiness of a beet with the smoothness of a proper goat cheese. The light flavors of the mildly hoppy pilsner from Oblivion complemented the crostini admirably. Bad Boys BBQ was also on site with a brisket, pulled pork and salmon pate. The brisket melted in our mouths and proved to be an excellent contrast to all the lighter dishes we had been sampling. Bridge 99's seasonal Windigo Trail IPA was a delicious and deep citrus counterpoint to the smoky beef and pork.
4:40 p.m. At the Drake, Angela's charming face and Jared's killer vibe put everyone at ease. The duck confit toast bites with strawberry rhubarb jam were perfect. Considered going back for seconds until we found the Walter Gin Collective handing out generously-sized servings of Tom Collins. Between the duck confit and the Tom Collins, we imagine we're classing up the joint, maybe for the first time in our lives.
4:55 p.m. Sotheby's Downtown was hosting The Well Traveled Fork with Cascade Street Distillers. The delightfully bite-sized treat combining olives, blue cheese and tortilla "forks" made for a fun snack. They told us to eat them in the order of olive/blue cheese/tortilla, and that advice was taken, used and appreciated. The drink from Cascade Street Distillers was strong like bull, giving Angela instant goosebumps and making Jared's face feel funny.
5:10 p.m. Barrio threw down a duck and date pincho, with duck confit, medjool dates, a spinach/radish salad with almonds and a marionberry reduction. Angela is telling Jared the history of the word marionberry and it is just as boring and awful as you would think. Where's the liquor? There it is!! A Wild Roots Spirits marionberry lime-aide. It was delicious and added to the general fog starting to settle in around us.
5:20 p.m. Café Sintra made crostini with Linguiça (smoke cured porked sausage), topped with a chipotle hollandaise. The crisp white wine from Sip Wine Bar soothed the face muscles after the spicy mouth punch that was the deliciously complex hollandaise. WINE! So many wines. Is anyone else warm? These chairs are comfortable. Let's just close our eyes for a second.
5:40 p.m. NOOOO! That was more than a second. Too many places to go and not enough time. We snagged the cheeseburger from J-DUB, which was the perfect antidote to our booze-soaked souls. Will Tums be at the next stop? Mmmmm. Cheeseburgers. The owner asked us if we drank our beer already and we couldn't remember. Probably?
5:50 p.m. Winding down. Rockin' Dave's fed us a really fancy pig in a blanket. No one was complaining and life was good. Who knew milkshakes can be made with booze? Dave knows. Dave knows well. Wild Roots and Vivacity Spirits gave us a strawberry milkshake with vodka in it. So good—might like to fill a bathtub with it.
5:57 p.m. Hola! bestowed upon us a red cactus margarita and some ribs. Just some wonderful ribs. Ribs. We like ribs.
6:00 p.m. Begging the Brickhouse to let us in for a nice place to sit down. The good and just people there fed us meatballs. Vive le Brickhouse! There is beer here from Goodlife. Goodlife? It sure is.
