Cover Story
Best of Central Oregon 2023
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Try Your Hand At Jams
Funny how so many of the recipes I share end up stemming from, or triggering, a childhood memory. This one is no exception. Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandmother. She was a child of the Great Depression which translated into a solid “waste not, want not” philosophy in her…
LISTEN: Bend Social Co., Patric Douglas 🎧
In this episode of Bend Don’t Break, hear seasoned tourism veteran Patric Douglas talk about his life’s adventures, how he landed in Central Oregon and why he founded The Bend Social Co., of which he is the CEO (Chief Excitement Officer). Douglas has 30+ years of experience traveling the globe and introducing others to amazing…
Chicken To Beat The Heat
This week’s recipe isn’t really a strict recipe but rather a couple of suggestions on how to make good use of one of those mighty fine rotisserie chickens. Grocery stores and supermarkets have been carrying these tasty birds for years now and I’ve been a fan for a long time. The prices are usually quite…
Return of the Resorts
Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair reversed a decision to amend the county’s code to ban new destination resorts in most of Deschutes County. Central Oregon LandWatch presented the code changes to the county, which would opt the county into a state statute that bars the development of resorts that include residential housing within 24 miles…
Best New Restaurant
Rancher Butcher Chef, commonly known as RBC, defines itself as a modern steakhouse and butcher counter. What that means, according to co-owner Renee Gorham, is that the menu is more eclectic than your typical steakhouse. It also means a festive atmosphere with family-style service. That family-style service is intentional, with the idea that passing plates…
Best Florist
Donner Flower Shop is the perennial winner of Best Florist in the Source Weekly’s annual readers’ poll, but no one, especially owner Tanja Rodgers, takes that for granted. During a recent mid-week visit to the bustling shop, workers were intently focused on their individual flowery tasks, pausing only long enough to look up with a…
In the Matter of the People vs. Knopp, More Political Gymnastics
For some Republicans (and one Independent) in the Oregon State Senate, the writing is on the wall: Voters wanted them at work. When they didn’t show up 10 times this past legislative session, they were deemed ineligible to run again. There’s a good chance if current legislation holds, they’re out of a job. For legislators…
Best Seafood
Sebastian’s Seafood & Specialty Market opened at The Grove in Northwest Crossing in 2021 and in two short years has made a name for itself for being the local place for all things seafood. The specialty market features a full-service seafood and meat case, high-quality imported goods and specialty products and plenty of deli and…
Best Nonprofit Serving Basic Needs
Bethlehem Inn started as a group of pastors opening up their churches as winter warming shelters all the way back in 1999. Now, it has two campuses of its own, where it helps both families and individual adults navigate out of homelessness. “We’re going into our 25th year. And I think it’s too wrong to…
What in the World to Do with a Teenager?
The transition has hit. As of this summer I officially have two teenagers living at home. As my daughters become young adults, the thought of hiking or biking any significant distance immediately elicits resistance and strong complaints from both of them. One would assume that growing up in Bend would automatically instill an appreciation and…
Best Smoothie/Juice Bar
Not all smoothies are created equal; that’s why Mother’s Westside Juice Cafe has been a Central Oregon staple since 1999. What’s the secret to that level of longevity? The answer is “Great ingredients, consistency & love,” according to Executive Chef Renee Raymond. That makes sense since as long as I’ve been going to Mother’s, I…
Best Wedding Venue
Faith, Hope and Charity isn’t known for being a wedding venue, but when it is, it’s really special. The vineyard was planted in 2010, but the business had its first wedding in 2008. The number of yearly weddings at the vineyard varies, but this year, there are only five. With an attention to detail and…
Food Sensitivities and Your Health
When most think of reactions to food that can compromise health, the classic peanut or shellfish allergy typically come to mind. These can cause serious and potentially life-threatening reactions, sometimes within minutes of eating that food. This type of reaction, called an immediate hypersensitivity reaction, can result in a sudden onset of hives, itching skin…
Weed Warriors Protects Native Plants
There are many ways to get rid of pesky weeds. Local nonprofit, Deschutes Land Trust, hosts volunteering events every year, inviting people to get their hands dirty and help pull invasive weeds at protected lands in Central Oregon. It has several upcoming opportunities for people to become “weed warriors.” The Weed Warrior events will continue…
Best Lunch in Redmond
Schoolhouse Produce and Provisions doesn’t just provide organic produce, meats and all kinds of thoughtfully sourced grocery items, but with the Lunchbox, Schoolhouse’s in-house deli, it also provides Redmond’s Best Lunch. Owner Heidi Cook explains: “We are hoping that our customers think of us as a bit more than a produce store. We’d love to…
The Importance of Emotional Stability
Understanding your feelings is key to making a difference in your life. Knowing the source of your debilitating feelings and understanding its purpose can provide an opportunity to learn self-control and in doing so provide greater opportunity for personal satisfaction. Everyone wants what he or she wants. We learn to be demanding in early childhood…
Best Solar Company
Sunlight Solar is the original grid-tied solar company in Central Oregon, according to president/founder Paul Israel. (Grid-tied means a solar energy setup that maintains a connection to the electricity grid.) Sunlight Solar sells, designs and installs everything in-house, with its 17 employees. The company must be doing something right, as Source Weekly readers voted it…
Best Lunch in Sunriver
Café Sintra in Sunriver has won several categories in our Best Of poll for years. Stop by in the morning for one of its eggs benedict dishes, egg scrambles, omelets or breakfast pastries, or during lunch to grab one of the sandwiches, stews or salads. The owners of Cafe Sintra in Bend started the restaurant…
10 Barrel, Widmer Being Sold to Cannabis Company
Some of Oregon’s most iconic breweries are changing hands once again and going to a perhaps unlikely owner: an international cannabis and lifestyle company. St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch struck a deal this week to sell Bend’s 10 Barrel Brewing Co. and Portland’s Widmer Brothers Brewing and Square Mile Cider Co. as part of an eight-brand acquisition…
Best Landscaping Service
HD Landscape is known to many as the one-stop shop for all outdoor needs. Established in 2007, the local landscaping business has been highly regarded for its customer service, its willingness, punctuality and effectiveness. The services the business offers are endless. It does seasonal cleanup, including gutter cleanout and leaf and debris removal, as well…
Best New Restaurant in Redmond
The story of Feast Food Company sounds like the emerging, classic tale of young up-and-comers of Central Oregon: Two longtime service-industry people live and work in Bend, get priced out of Bend, buy a house in Redmond and decide to invest in their new community, so they open a food cart business that goes so…
No Day But Today
I’m a theater kid — have been since I played Joseph for a Christmas play in Catholic school in the second grade. One thing any theater kid will tell you is that no matter how many musicals they love, there is one that stands above the rest… one where the first time you hear the…
Indigo De Souza Coming to Bend
Being a popular indie musician, Indigo De Souza is quiet compared to most. De Souza loves sharing her intimate music with others while touring. However, she doesn’t know how long she’ll be able to do it. “If the show didn’t help people emotionally get through things, or if it didn’t mean something to them emotionally,…
What’s Best of Bend? Everything!
Nestled in the heart of Central Oregon, Bend is a captivating blend of natural beauty and community spirit. With stunning Cascade Mountains, winding rivers and a thriving arts scene, our town offers a life of adventure, culture and belonging. This city’s commitment to sustainability and year-round recreation makes Bend an exceptional and wonderful place to…
Best Bar
You might have seen the t-shirts: “San Simón is a bar,” (you’re welcome, San Simón, for the Source Weekly Restaurant Guide quote used on that shirt) but the readers of Central Oregon would likely add a few more adjectives to that description. Perhaps they’d call the spot in Bend’s Tin Pan Alley “hip,” or “eclectic,”…
Best Fitness Studio
Ryan Clark founded Clark’s University of Martial Arts a decade ago after about 20 years training in different martial arts. Like other modern martial arts gyms, it focuses on proven disciplines like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a form of grappling that emphasizes positioning and leverage to apply chokes, holds and joint manipulation, and Muay Thai, “the art…
Dracula and Other Monsters
I went to the movies this weekend specifically to watch and review, “The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” a new vampire flick based on “The Captain’s Log” chapter from Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” The film is solid, if unremarkable, with a few good scares and a pretty disturbing design for Dracula himself, but there isn’t much more…
Best Specialty Cocktail
There are probably some people who don’t like the word verdant, but it’s an apt descriptor for this cocktail. Not only is it a joyous shade of green, dare I say chartreuse, but it smacks of many a garden’s delights, or at least well-stocked bar’s garnish station. Gin, already the most botanical of all spirits,…
Horoscope Week of August 17, 2023
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Unless you are French, chances are you have never heard of Saint-John Perse (1887–1975). He was a renowned diplomat for the French government and a poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Now he’s virtually unknown outside of his home country. Can we draw useful lessons for your use, Leo?…
Best Home Décor
Karrie Trowbridge, the owner of Lark Mountain Modern, had never owned or worked in a home décor shop when she decided to purchase Lark from its original owners. Lark opened in January of 2020 and soon after that, was forced to shut down due to the pandemic. The team decided to weather the storm by…
Best Light Beer
When GoodLife’s Sweet As won “People’s Choice” at the Bend Brewfest — in the brewery’s first year out of the gate, no less — it showed that this brewery knew it was onto something from the drop. A dozen years later, Sweet As is still undeniably and indelibly a Bend favorite. “We’re making classic, clean…
Letters to the Editor 08/17/2023
ADAIR FLIP-FLOPPED AGAIN; IT’S TIME FOR A RECALL On Thursday, Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair “flip-flopped” on her July 26th vote to stop new destination resorts in Deschutes County. This isn’t her 1st flip-flop; she also changed her view on a city-approved managed campsite for the south end of Bend. Regarding the managed campsite, during…
Best Clothing Consignment
Cosa Cura began its life in 2006, under the name Rescue Collective, the brainchild of artist Angela Dietrich and a group of friends. The space took on its current name in 2016, and in 2018, found its current home along the bustling NW Crossing Drive on Bend’s west side. The shop buys and sells consigned…
Not a Book
On a recent smoky Saturday, desperate to get my young, squabbling kids out of the house, my family and I headed to the Downtown Bend Library. Instead of going straight to the children’s area where they could burn off some energy and refresh their books, we went upstairs to explore a collection I’d just learned…
A Chicken Shanty for Bend
What started with the purchase of a $300 food cart bought from Craigslist just a few years ago has turned into a full-fledged Northwest chicken chain that now includes a location in Bend. Chicken Shanty began with a single drive-thru cart in southern Oregon, and has since expanded to 14 locations, including the newest one…
Best Nursery/Garden Center
With close to 40 years in business, Moonfire and Sun Nursery has certainly stood the test of time. The nursery is open year-round and has an extensive selection and variety of both indoor and outdoor plants, including a wide range of natives that keep customers keep coming back. In the summer months, the nursery sells…
Best Bowl & Best Vegetarian
With all of the hiking, biking, floating, paddling and concert-going that happens around here, Central Oregonians have plenty of reasons to need a hearty and nutritious meal. When it comes to something hearty that’s also vegetarian, there’s almost nothing that fits the bill more than a bowl. At Active Culture Cafe, bowls are some of…
Ashland Juice Bar Opens Location in Bend
The Westside Yard in Bend, a relatively new apartment and business complex along Century Drive, has some new tenants who are bringing more culinary adventures to the area. This month saw the opening of Northwest Raw, the second juice bar for founders Web and Karen Staunton, who originally opened a first location along Main Street…
Best Lunch in Sisters
Sisters’ best lunch is also one of its great specialty markets, offering an array of smoked products — beef dogs, bratwursts, and jerky, as well as fresh meats including specialty items like lamb and elk. But, the sandwiches are why Sisters Smokehouse is the returning champion of our annual Best Of poll. “We make our own…
Best Burger
The first smash burger I ever had was at Blue Eyes Burgers and Fries, and I’m not sure I’ve had a better one since. There’s something special about your first smash burger that sticks with you, and Blue Eyes Manager Mekenzie Stearns tries to help me understand. “A smash burger is an alchemy of beef,…
A Case of Mistaken Nesting
Recent construction on the roads around Bend led to an incident that required some help from the local wildlife rescue, Think Wild. Ospreys are fish-eating birds of prey that build a sizeable stick-nest atop a large tree or snag, on a bridge span or on an artificial platform. In Central Oregon, several of these nests…
Bluebird Days
Jordan Davis was well aware that he’d have a lot at stake when he turned his attention to making his second album. “I don’t know how true it is, but I believed it,” Davis said in a mid-May phone interview. “The first album is kind of where you showed up to the party and then…
A Tale of Two Badgers
Wildlife rescue takes many forms for Think Wild, Bend’s wildlife hospital and conservation center. Sometimes it’s medical care for injured or abandoned creatures; sometimes it’s a Wildlife Hotline conversation answering wildlife-related questions with the caller. Some situations call for unique solutions, as in the recent rescue and release of two orphaned badger cubs. This tale…
Best Food Cart and Best Vegan
“Best Vegan” is a new category in Best of Central Oregon this year, and it’s no surprise that Toasty is taking home the top honors. The cart is honored in first place for Best Food Cart and Best Vegan, but also earned second place in the Best Vegetarian category. It all started with a random…
Rewind: Shows We’ve Seen This Month
From classic country to French pop rock to ’90s grunge adjacent American rock — Bend’s got quite the plethora of big names in the industry coming to town, and it feels like it’s safe to say a summer in Central Oregon is becoming an ongoing music festival. Like, who are we? We’re pretty lucky, folks!…
Drought Ongoing, New Water Laws Incoming
At the end of May, no part of Deschutes County faced extreme or exceptional drought — the first time that’s been the case since June 2020. Drought reached its peak in mid-December 2021, when 56% of the county was deemed to be in exceptional drought. That designation is reserved for areas that are 98% drier…
Best Mac'N Cheese
We live in a time where macaroni and cheese has become elevated, and I’m here for it. The dish has become a pub food staple, with each kitchen trying its own unique spin on the classic meal. That’s among the reasons there’s now an entire category for mac and cheese in this Best of Central…
Boatpacking With Dogs: A How-To
Central Oregon is host to a slew of dog-friendly adventures, but there’s one that stands out: boatpacking. It’s like backpacking, but on a boat, and SUPs and kayaks are perfect personal transports! Local lakes including Sparks Lake and Waldo Lake make for great boatpacking trips complete with glorious evening stargazing shows. Last summer, I loaded…
Nueva ley contra el fentanilo
El 7 de agosto, la agencia de Control de Drogas de Oregon Central (CODE por sus siglas en inglés), arrestó a un hombre sospechoso de traficar fentanilo en los acampamentos para personas sin hogar, localizados sobre la calle China Hat. Tres días después, CODE arrestó a una mujer de La Pine acusada por distribuir fentanilo…
New Law Used Against Fentanyl
On Aug. 7 the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team arrested a man suspected of trafficking fentanyl to homeless encampments along China Hat Road. Three days later CODE arrested a La Pine woman who is accused of distributing fentanyl around Deschutes and Klamath counties. In both cases, press releases about the arrests included information about House…
Best Italian
Nome Italiano bills itself as “a red sauce joint,” and according to Justin Hyde, director of operations for SixTop Restaurant Group, the inspiration comes from those classic red sauce joints in New York, Chicago and other American cities. While paying homage to those original, authentic Italian restaurants, many started by Italian immigrants, the emphasis at…
Best Local Radio Personality
Central Oregon’s favorite radio personality, Dave Clemens, says he wanted to be a radio broadcaster since he was 12 years old, when he started making tapes and sending them to friends and family. He got his first radio job a year or two after high school, in 1990, landing at KRCO in Prineville, and has…
