Downtown Bend has traditionally been known as the heart of the city; a charming, pedestrian-friendly area that invites both locals and tourists to walk the streets and indulge in shopping, dining and nightlife. About 40 restaurants occupy the downtown area, offering a wide variety of options for those looking to dine in or grab a quick bite.
But what’s meant to be a bustling and vibrant area of Bend is seeing a lower number of locals and tourists, according to some business owners. Several downtown eateries are reporting a dropoff in customers in recent months, causing concern for the future success of their businesses.
On May 5, long-standing downtown restaurant 900 Wall closed its doors, citing a significant decrease in customers. Owner Cliff Eslinger attributed the issue to more competition and the fact that people aren’t spending like they used to.
“Every night I walk around downtown before I get on my bike and go home, or ride a lap, and every business is a third full at 7 o’clock, 8 o’clock. …There’s a lot of people really hurting right now,” Eslinger told the Source on May 6, the day after the restaurant’s closure announcement.
Following that news, a community outpouring ensued on social media, leading many locals to wonder why the seemingly successful business had made the abrupt decision.
While downtown Bend remains a prime location in the city, business owners worry about a possible economic downturn, and local decisions that some say are deterring people from the area.
“After 900 Wall, that was kind of a real eye opener…we’re all kind of wondering who’s next,” said Laura Bliss, owner of The Jackalope Grill, a farm-to-table restaurant on Lava Road.
A Perfect Storm
Bliss purchased The Jackalope Grill, formerly Tim Garling’s Jackalope Grill, in 2022. While the restaurant has seen success, Bliss noted a significant difference in recent months.
When driving or walking around, Bliss said, she’s seeing fewer people downtown than ever before. Another downtown business, the family-run Thai restaurant Wild Rose, is seeing similar changes in the area. Managing member of Wild Rose, May Rattanaphaibuncharoen, said people simply aren’t spending time downtown like they used to.
“When business is slow, I often take a walk to check out other local spots, and they seem to be struggling too — even the brewery just a block away. Downtown doesn’t feel as lively or engaging for tourists or pedestrians,” she said.
At The Jackalope Grill, Bliss said they’ve seen a 30% decrease just in this first quarter, from Jan. 1 to April 30.
“We ran the numbers over the last five years and historically speaking… this is the lowest we’ve seen in the last five years,” Bliss told the Source. “I’ve been in the restaurant industry for 25 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this. Even the recession was better than this. COVID was better than this.”
Bliss believes their decrease in sales is likely a result of rising costs.
According to Jason Brandt, President and CEO of the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association, current costs associated with dining out are resulting in fewer overall customers.
“Whether you’re talking about tariffs, the impacts of inflation, the margins, restaurants are so razor thin to begin with. It’s nearly impossible for restaurant owners to stay in business if they don’t pass on those costs to their customer,” Brandt said.
According to Brandt, these economic pressures are happening on a larger scale, with restaurants across the nation likely suffering due to the current economic environment.
Bend Chamber CEO Katy Brooks agrees.
“It’s a lot of things happening at the same time, it’s the cumulative impacts…the chickens are coming home to roost on that,” Brooks told the Source.
Tourism also plays a big role, having a direct impact on businesses. According to Brandt, all seven tourism regions across Oregon are still trying to get back to pre-pandemic occupancy levels. Winter is typically the slow season for tourists, which can lead to a dip in restaurant visits. According to the most recent data available from Visit Bend, Bend’s lodging occupancy rates went from a high of 79% in July 2023 to a low of 40.3% in January 2024, demonstrating a steep decline from summer to winter. While Bliss of Jackalope Grill assumes other areas of Bend are struggling, she assumes there’s a higher impact downtown, due to nearby ongoing construction.
“It is pretty understandable, considering the economic uncertainty everyone is facing, coupled with the insane traffic situation on Greenwood and Franklin.” —Commons owner, Dan Baumann
Steven Draheim, the owner of Bar Rio, is noticing the shift in customers, but feels the main issues are at the City of Bend level, stating that increased traffic concerns are a major roadblock for people who were previously spending more time in the area.
On Feb. 5, the City of Bend closed the intersection of Olney Avenue and Wall Street for construction, causing lengthy traffic delays along detour routes like Newport and Greenwood Avenues.
The intersection is set to reopen sometime this fall.
A main detour route, Greenwood Avenue, a primary road into the downtown area, was the subject of scrutiny last summer, when the City completed a project that added protected crosswalks and buffered bike lanes and reduced travel lanes.
In hopes of improving traffic, the City of Bend developed a map to help identify alternate east-west routes that drivers can utilize. Still, business owners feel the impacts the changes are having on locals, who they think could be avoiding the area altogether.
“If people can’t get downtown, or can’t get downtown timely enough, there’s just too many other options for people to go to,” Draheim told the Source. “This idea that downtown is this gem where no one can fail is fool’s gold.”
While Draheim said he isn’t sounding any alarms quite yet, he’s unhappy with decisions being made at the City level regarding some of these big construction projects.
He said business owners should feel more supported by the City, and that leaders should have considered these impacts by not doing so much construction all at once.
City of Bend Business Advocate, Cyrus Mooney, responded to these concerns.
“The City fully understand the challenges that construction can pose for businesses, particularly those that experience direct accessibility impacts for extended periods of time,” he told the Source via email. “That said, based on data pertaining to parking usage, room tax collections and consumer spending, we are not seeing a decline in any of these categories compared to previous years.”
While Mooney said that spending will vary between businesses, he added that restaurants could be more susceptible to the uncertainty in the economy, causing folks to be more hesitant with their disposable income.
Editor’s note: The City of Bend provided comment after our print deadline. We have added the response to the online version.
Aside from construction, downtown businesses have also cited parking as a barrier for customers.
In the fall, the City of Bend proposed a plan that would implement low-car districts, or “people streets,” exploring downtown streets like Oregon and Minnesota Avenues as potential areas for limiting car use. While the idea generated excitement from some in the community, downtown business owners almost unanimously opposed the idea, with concerns about the elimination of needed downtown parking.
“I’m all for growth and all that. But let’s be a little more strategic about the impacts of people being able to get around,” said Draheim.
While Draheim is worried about the impacts of both the economy and nearby road projects, he said, he’s not in as bad of a place, financially, due to his other business offerings throughout the city. Draheim also owns the Bodega Market on Wall Street, the Barrio food truck in east Bend and restaurant Shimshon at The Grove in Northwest Crossing.
These other, quicker dining options offer a different model that often sees more success during challenging times.
According to Brandt with ORLA, customers are dining out in different ways.
Changing Landscape
At The Commons, the cafe and taproom on Brooks Street in downtown Bend, Owner Dan Baumann has heard various concerns from his neighbors and agrees that a number of issues are impacting businesses across the area.
“It is pretty understandable, considering the economic uncertainty everyone is facing, coupled with the insane traffic situation on Greenwood and Franklin. I dare say nobody wants to travel downtown around dinner time unless they absolutely have to, with the east and west traffic backups going on right now,” he said.
However, because of a difference in clientele compared to other more traditional, sit-down eateries, The Commons is not dealing with some of these same concerns, he said. According to Baumann, this is likely because of its lower price point and more casual atmosphere.
“I’ve been in the restaurant industry for 25 years, and i’ve never seen anything like this. Even the recession was better than this. COVID was better than this.” —Jackalope Grill Owner, Laura Bliss
According to Brooks with the Bend Chamber, most of the restaurants struggling in Bend are sit-down eateries, those that have waitstaff and offer a more traditional dining experience.
“It’s a tough business to be in and it’s highly sensitive to pricing and inflation and labor costs, in particular. In addition to that, there are tariffs and inflation that’s still impacting cost of food,” said Brooks. “The higher-end, the higher quality, and the more service-oriented, I would imagine that’s probably where they’re feeling the most impacts.”
According to Brandt with ORLA, the impacts are causing business owners to make hard decisions regarding costs, and looking at whether their business model is still viable.
With peak tourism season approaching, some local restaurants are optimistic about the potential for more customers, but still grapple with the realities of how and where customers are dining.
“You keep hearing in the public that the landscape of dining is changing, and I think a lot of us restaurant owners are trying to figure out what that landscape looks like, and how we can accommodate, because none of us want to go down,” said Bliss. “We’re doing everything we can, barely sleeping at night, trying to figure out how to stay open.”
Some people in the industry are looking for other changes that could help revamp the current landscape.
May with Wild Rose suggested a more focused approach, claiming downtown could use more events or ongoing attractions to draw people in and keep downtown vibrant and inviting. Brandt said other ideas are surfacing, like a more coordinated effort to engage tourists and locals.
According to Brandt, the tourism industry should be more vigilant at coordination – making sure restaurants have the opportunity to tweak their hours and stay open later when they know a big concert or event is happening, to take advantage of moments where they could have significant sales coming in.
“There is opportunity, I think, for ongoing communication and coordination across the events, festivals, parades, the different things that are attracting the visitors, and making sure the restaurants are fully in the know about when it’s going to be the busiest, so they don’t lose the opportunity to accommodate those guests,” Brandt told the Source. “I’ve gotten the impression that there could be some improvement in that space, and that’s just anecdotal.”
Baumann with The Commons hopes that, in the coming months, tourism remains on trend and people are spending enough to bring a spark back to downtown. In the meantime, however, he expects more places to adjust hours, to make up for staffing issues, and offer more happy hours or deals to get people in the doors.
“I don’t want to see any more businesses suffer downtown and hope as the seasons change it takes a turn for the better, and soon when I ask any fellow business owners how they are doing, I get a big smile and an ‘Awesome!’ as a response,” he said.
This article appears in Source Weekly May 15, 2025.
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Build a parking garage and turn the Downtown into a pedestrian mall. And while they are at it, purge everyone associated with the Downtown Bend Business Association and start over.
My wife and I live on the SE side of Bend. Over the past five years we have just seen the changes to the downtown area make it progressively more unpleasant to drive to the area for dining. The latest, and perhaps the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back”, has been the constant revision of downtown parking, and the Greenwood Ave disaster. It’s as if the city of Bend doesn’t really want you to come downtown if you have to drive a car to get there. Consequently, we’ve been patronizing eateries that open up outside of the downtown area, because our living location requires a car for transport!
I believe this issue is not primarily related to costs, but rather stems from a lack of organization in construction projects, poorly planned road diets, and inefficient traffic flow. Additionally, there seems to be a lack of consideration for the impact on local business owners. The city’s approach to growth appears to be unsustainable, with insufficient engagement of communities and business owners in the planning and decision-making processes.. It also doesn’t go unnoticed they the city provides surgery’s for feedback but don’t really use that information as it doesn’t coincide with their agenda.
Sorry typo Surveys not surgeries
The restaurants want to blame parking and road construction but no one is talking about how expensive it is to eat out. Two burgers and beers and a 20% tip is $80. A nice restaurant like Bosa or Arianna is $200. And the bougie restrains like RBC and Hawkeye and Huckleberry are even more.
How often can people afford to eat out at these prices? It’s no wonder we have become a town of food trucks.
The restaurant industry thrived in the post COVID population boom and pent up demand for entertainment. But now they are going to have to put some effort into attracting customers.
People are always going to flock to the newest restaurants so perhaps some of the others will need to focus more on locals, look at ways to make things more affordable, create value, and do some marketing to remind diners that they exist.
It took me 15 minutes to get up Franklin across 3rd from Wall Street yesterday, even longer on the ridiculous Greenwood project – and with even Food Trucks costing upwards of $20 per meal item, meals Downtown are way out of reach for most people in Bend which is really, really frustrating and unfortunate as it is the perfect area to wander and enjoy.
If and when the City realizes or wakes up to smell the dinners cooking and listens to locals and their comments/complaints about traffic (especially traffic) then maybe it will be easier to visit, but prices unfortunately continue to rise which equals a catch 22 issue, again really unfortunate for us all.
Look to traffic and prices for the roots of this problem. It is insufferable to try to get anywhere downtown these days. Then – once you manage to find a parking place – the cost of a dinner in those lovely restaurant is prohibitive.
It’s not a lack of people. It is the cost (time, trouble, $$$) that is driving customers away.
We went to the Farmer’s Markey yesterday and parked in the lot behind the market. Our parking time was expired by one minute and we came back to a parking ticket already on our windshield. It then took us five stop lights on Greenwood and multiple honks and bad tempers to get out of downtown. Not fun. We also have given two downtown restaurants chances to impress lately and our food was under-cooked and just plain bad both times at different restaurants. Between the parking issues and the sub-par over-priced food, it’s no wonder downtown is struggling.
The article states that the Olney-Wall Street intersection will reopen sometime this fall. Is this correct? The city has said that the project will continue through May and streets would reopen in June. Can you please clarify?
Wow-it couldn’t be the loss of parking spots, or adding pay to the lots downtown or the poor access due to road closures and Greenwood changes, could it? Pretty amazing that Bend can’t figure this out. I won’t even mention the stupid electronic parking spot signs that you can’t read when you’re driving, let alone spend the time to interpret. Insert rolling eyes here…..
One of Bend’s city council goals is to save by planet from climate change by restricting or eliminating cars. What they don’t appreciate is that auto traffic is like a blood stream bringing life to downtown.
Is the next step to make a pedestrian mall and kill off downtown altogether?
I stopped going downtown when they started charging for parking. Also curious why there was no mention of greedy landlords.
It’s interesting that we only heard from restaurant owners about why business is slow. Why didn’t you interview customers? Yes, it is costing more to eat out, but I feel that overall the quality and sometimes quantity has gone way down. Places that were good are just mediocre at best.
As far as traffic it baffles me that people won’t park 3 or 4 blocks away and walk. Why do you try to park right in front of where you want to go? And stop complaining about paying to park. Street parking is free, and the lots are cheap. I do agree that the electronic parking available signs were a big waste of money.
Absolutely other business types are suffering, not just restaurants. Seems to me much of the issue is the lack of a coordinated “marketing” campaign to draw people to downtown coupled with noted traffic/parking/construction issues. Old Mill, NW Crossing and the like are much more effective at association type marketing to draw in customers from surrounding areas. Oh yeah, also have free parking, more variety of business types, and unique spaces. Downtown events like First Friday, music in the Park, art celebrations at Commons, Farmer’s Market should be broadcast from the rooftops. Owning a business downtown, we can personally tell you we often have no idea of special events going on in the area. Downtown has a great walking area, Brooks Alley and the other cool alleyways, but they get zero attention from the DBBA from a marketing/signage perspective. The DBBA is ineffective, uncoordinated, and non-communicative to business owners – let’s start there.
Time for Greenwood, a main arterial, to go back to four lanes! The experiment is a failure! Traffic is stop and go!
It’s easy to complain about traffic and parking when one is used to no traffic and free, available parking. They may not like it, but people need to adapt to these new realities. (Sure, downtown signage and the parking meters are odd, but is that really dissuading so many?)
And, businesses, it seems convenient to blame road changes and construction for reduced business. Focus on raising your game. I’ll happily park 5 blocks away and pay a buck or 2 for parking to dine at Yoli, Dear Irene, Zydeco, Salute, or to get a cask ale and pie at The Cellar. Those businesses — some expensive, some not — deliver a great product.
* Downtown free parking is a joke. The lit signs are unreadable and incomprehensible. Waste of $. Give me 2 hrs free, on street and in the garage, then charge hourly. That’ll make me come back.
*Restaurant gripes—prices up, quality down. Not worth it. Add in the LOUDness factor … I’d like to enjoy my meal with some nice convo, not yell and feel frazzled enough to just leave.
That’s why we go downtown less for food, entertainment, shopping. Street construction is but a minor inconvenience. Plan ahead and chill-not worth getting worked up about (as I say this to myself when in a LONG line at the light).
Yes, prices at restaurants have gotten ridiculously high, and that is a big factor anytime many of us make a decision about eating out. But most of the complaints I’m hearing about getting to them seem to be from those who don’t want to give up their vehicles to get around, and those are the very ones contributing to the road congestion they are complaining about. The city is attempting to make a more sustainable CBD, and part of that is focusing on pedestrian/bicycle safety and access. Living in an area where one can walk, bike, and take public transportation not only alleviates vehicular traffic, but increases physical and mental health, through exercise and cleaner air. Other cities who have figured this out, like Carmel, California, have shown huge successes and are main tourist destinations due to those sustainable choices. Change can be difficult, but often times necessary. Yes, the timing of road work here in Bend needs addressing, but the encouragement of biking and walking shouldn’t be vilified . And I love The Commons!
The comment section is clear. The City of Bend created this mess……..like all the messes in this town. That’s obvious, at this point. The real question needs to be what is the community going to do about it, if there is anything we can do.
The City of Bend is completely inept and it’s time to get real about this.
And Source……..come on. An entire feature focusing mainly on restaurants? Costs have risen everywhere……but when I leave town I’m not being asked to pay $25 for a burger without fries and an $8 beer.
Calebsmum …. Are you kidding me? Walking and biking? If downtown were forced to rely only on people who can walk/bike there would be no downtown. You and the bicycle mayor … I look forward to watching both of you biking from Costco while carrying a 24 roll package of toilet paper.
Dining out in Bend is getting ridiculously expensive. I pay more in Bend to dine out than I do in Scottsdale, AZ, where my mom lives, and Palm Springs, CA, where I live half the year. And people need to stop using tariffs as an excuse to raise prices or not dine out – the tariffs (such as they are) have nothing to do with it.
Not addressed is the horrible service often received in Bend restaurants. I’m frankly getting tired of seeing a server with a sleeve (or two) of tattoos, five piercings in each ear, a large nice ring, a pierced lip, and hair that is a color not found in nature. They say dress for the job you want. Pirate? Clown?