Jenna Makes the Bend Bar Scene (Briefly) | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

Jenna Makes the Bend Bar Scene (Briefly)

What does a president's daughter from Texas do when she's in Bend and gets a yen for some liquid refreshment and a fellow Texan to

What does a president's daughter from Texas do when she's in Bend and gets a yen for some liquid refreshment and a fellow Texan to talk with?


She drops in at The Blacksmith restaurant and bar, which is where Jenna Bush - briefly in town to promote the paperback edition of her book Ana's Story - unexpectedly showed up Tuesday evening.

Although she built quite the reputation as a party girl in her younger years, getting busted for MIP and trying to use a fake ID in two separate incidents, the now-26-year-old Ms. Bush was a model of decorum on her visit to The Blacksmith, according to General Manager Kevin Gilman.

"She came in for a couple of cocktails and sat in the bar," Gilman said. "She said she was from Texas and wanted to check out the place."

Chef and partner Gavin McMichael said Jenna told him she'd heard about the restaurant and that he too was from Texas, "and she wanted to try it."

"We talked about Austin" - where Jenna went to college - "and what she missed about Texas," McMichael said. "It was just a nice casual conversation. She talked about how much she liked Bend and how much it was like Austin."

Gilman said "pretty much everybody" in the place recognized Jenna, but the patrons were cool about it. Nobody even asked for an autograph.

"Everybody was kind of whispering among themselves, but they didn't intrude," he said. "I was pleased with the way everybody handled it."

The Blacksmith advertises "distinctive new ranch cuisine," with menu  items like lobster corn dogs, "Not Your Mother's Meatloaf" and "rancher's ribeye." McMichael said Jenna and her female companion had planned to eat at The Blacksmith, "but something changed with the schedule and they had to go" after only having drinks.

And what does a president's daughter from Texas drink when she's in Bend?

"She had a lemon drop," Gilman said.
 

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