Holy hot dog, does Bend love food! The Huffington Post recently named the Bend area #3 on a list of 15 of the country's most restaurant-crazed cities, calculating our remarkably high per-capita restaurant ratio of 431 restaurants for a county with just over 166,000 people.
On Sunday, 13 cream of the Bend-restaurant crop will offer up varied bites for an evening-long progressive dinner/pub-crawl-style fundraiser; yes, it is the second-ever Foodie Crawl.
Each stop in downtown, the Old Mill and on the westside will offer at least one exceptional small plate, all which sound mouthwateringly delicious.
Primal Cuts is offering an Argentin pulled beef slider with chimichurri sauce. Deschutes Brewery is serving a scotch egg with garlic aioli and pickled radish. Zydeco will deliver a molasses ginger beef satay with coconut sticky rice topped with Thai peanut sauce. Barrio, the Source's Rookie of the Year restaurant, will showcase a grilled ribeye rollo stuffed with mushrooms and corn.
Each dish will be paired with a specialty cocktail, beer or wine. The final, lucky 13th stop on the Foodie Crawl is smartly reserved for dessert, provided by Ida's Cupcakes and Nancy P's Bakery, hosted at the Bend Community Center.
The event brings together members of the community to bond over their love of food and interest in supporting fellow community members. All of the proceeds—as in 100 percent—from the event go to Bend's Community Center's Feed the Hungry program.
"They're going to get a belly full of gourmet food, they're going to meet amazing chefs, build community and ultimately, all the fun and smiles will boil down to helping to feed the hungry," said event organizer Talena Barker of the experience that awaits participants.
"Our restaurants care deeply about their community," added Barker. "Because they're dealing with high-end food, I think issues of hunger weigh heavily on their minds. No one deserves an empty belly."
Feed the Hungry doles out 2,000 meals each week to low-income and homeless families. Not a federally funded program, BCC struggles to find funds to provide the weekly Sunday meals.
"We almost closed their doors last fall due to lack of funds, and it would have been devastating to the people who come here every Sunday," said Linda Heatley, executive director of the BCC. "This money will enable us to continue on, and keep providing these services."
4 pm, Sunday, April 28
See the full menu and all the stops on the Bent Blog at bendsource.com
$65-$95.
