Food & Drink

My idea of visiting a country club involves visiting my wealthy aunt on the East Coast or sneaking into a certain resort hot tub after hours. Playing golf and sipping cocktails on a wrap-around patio that overlooks the entire Cascade mountain region? Not in my vocabulary. But now that Pronghorn has opened its door to the public, all are welcome to experience impeccable service, dining, golf and stays at Pronghorn Club.

My idea of visiting a country club involves visiting my wealthy aunt on the East Coast or sneaking into a certain resort hot tub after hours. Walking the grounds, playing golf and sipping cocktails on a wrap around patio that overlooks the entire Cascade mountain region? Not in my vocabulary. But now that Pronghorn has opened its door to the public, all are welcome to experience impeccable service, dining, golf and stays at Pronghorn Club
This summer, Pronghorn is hosting wine dinners that highlight nearby vintners and others with strong connections to Central Oregon. These events take place in Chanterelle, Pronghorn’s rustic fine dining restaurant that specializes in Pacific Northwest cuisine. The setting is spectacular, featuring a floor-to-ceiling fireplace, unbeatable views of the Cascades and an extensive wine list. And for those who don't know, Pronghorn is now open to the public thanks to its new 48-suite lodge that opened last summer.

“Here is the chicken you will be enjoying tonight, his name was Collin. Here are his papers.”
The server passes a file and photograph to a couple dining in Portland who then fire off a list of questions about this particular chicken served – location of the farm, the chicken's diet, whether the chicken had many other chicken friends, the restaurant's relationship with the farmer – eventually they decide to go and visit the farm in that instant and ask that the server hold their seats in the meantime.

We like our rating systems, don't we Bend? When I'm travelling, I set my Zagat criteria to 20 or higher (in search of the best). When I'm in Bend, I compare each dining experience to the one before – my own personal ranking system. In Bend, ratings are as ubiquitous as bumper stickers and reputation counts. Restaurants come and go; few stand the test of time. The New Lodge Restaurant at Black Butte Ranch has clear staying power and earns high marks in my book.Located between Sisters and Camp Sherman off of Highway 20, Black Butte Ranch houses a few different restaurants, but is best known for The New Lodge Restaurant. My companion and I arrived on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and as we made our way down the driveway, we saw deer, then horses, then geese and finally the majestic Mt. Washington, framed against ponderosa pines and trembling aspens. Yes, I'd call this a destination.

I recently returned from a visit to the East Coast with a renewed appreciation for all things ethnic – pastries, pastas, pashminas – the list was about 13.4 miles long (not coincidentally, the length of Manhattan).