Won't Get Fooled Again: Pollo Gordo's rotisserie is a sneaker delight

Posted inFood & Drink

Won't Get Fooled Again: Pollo Gordo's rotisserie is a sneaker delight

Suzanne Burns

Owners Ron and Diane Burns opened El Pollo Gordo in 2008 with a mission to provide, “fresh and healthy food at a reasonable price.” I admit when I first visited the restaurant, located across from the Wagner Mall, I anticipated fast food of dubious quality. Drawn in by “dollar taco” sandwich boards dotting the front lawn like maps to an unexpected culinary treat, I was met with a pleasant scene of golden rotisserie chicken, a brilliant salsa bar and endless combinations of chicken meals, salads, burritos and tacos. Ahh, the tacos…
Silver dollar pancake-sized white corn tortillas hugged carne asada and succulent chopped chicken topped with cilantro-spiked salsa. The taste and presentation reminded me of a Southern California or Baja Mexican delight. Satisfying but not greasy and with just enough piquant heat.

Posted inFood & Drink

Little Bites: Sausage Fest: BurlyWurst rolls out a better wiener

Eric Flowers

Despite a recent run of unseasonably warm weather, it's still officially winter, but that didn't prevent Derek and Gregg Yarrow, a pair of Long Island transplants from staking their culinary claim on Mirror Pond plaza. The brothers recently launched a joint venture that might just be the best rolling sausage fest in downtown Bend, apologies to the Classic Car Cruise…
The Yarrow Brothers opened BurlyWurst, an elaborate hot dog-and-sausage cart that would be the envy of any New York street vendor. Using recipes handed down from their German mother that are informed by younger brother Gregg's NYC culinary background, the Yarrows have elevated the wiener to an art form. Garnished with mom's homemade sauerkraut, the Berlin Brat ($4.50) comes served on a toasted bun and is available with slaw or sautéed onions. Or mix 'em all together. The guys are happy to help you customize your order to taste.

Posted inMusic

From the Ashes: Jukebot and Blowin Smoke

Mike Bookey

Last fall, a staple of Bend's live music scene for the past few years, El Dante, decided to call it quits. Those who saw El Dante probably remember their mostly jammy take on reggae, funk and positive-vibe rock bent on moving some asses on the dance floor. The six-piece outfit was kind of like an inordinately talented wedding band, but without the tuxedos and the cornball-ishness.
The band decided that their stylistic differences were enough to lead them in different directions, and it seems they have done just that, quickly forming two new outfits. First there's Jukebot, which features two El Dante members in Gabe Johnson and Tyler Mason and played a coming-out show at McMenamins a few weeks back after originally forming to serve as the Church of Neil house band.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for 2/17 – 2/25: PUSH Auction, Moonalice, The Toasters and more

Source Weekly

Blackflowers Blacksun
thursday 18
If you've never seen Greg Bryce, the man behind Blackflowers Blacksun, in action you should make it to this show, before Bryce heads back to Alaska where he works as a firefighter in the springs and summers. Along with his band, Bryce creates a jet engine worth of power with dirty slide blues guitar and howling vocals. $3. 8pm. Silver Moon Brewing Co., 24 NW Greenwood Ave.
The Confederates
friday 19
Longtime locals will remember this punk act, which has been on hiatus for almost three years now. But this weekend, the 'Rats return to the scene and bring along Tuck and Roll and Hands on Throat to open this triumphant return show. $2. 9pm. Players Bar & Grill, 25 SW Century Dr. 21 and over.

Posted inNews

News in Briefs: Politics, Public Lands and Playhouses

Source Weekly

Innovation Theatre to Open Bend Playhouse
With the fate of 2nd Street Theater still up in the air (although there are rumors of a potential buyer for the location,) there's some good news to be had in the local theater world with the announcement last week that Innovation Theatre Works will be opening a theater facility.
Most know Innovation for their productions of Driving Miss Daisy and the Frank Sinatra tribute My Way, both of which were performed at the Tower Theatre.
Located on the south end of town near the intersection of Reed Market and Division Street (just east of Highway 97), the facility will include a performance space that can seat 175-190 people, a lobby, dressing rooms and offices.
Innovation plans for the space to be more than a place for local theatrical presentations, expecting to hold sketch comedy performances, open mics and other events. This is in addition to the educational programs Innovation hopes to bring to their new spot.

Posted inNews

To Protect And Serve: Could more Wilderness be the answer for struggling rural economies?

Eric Flowers

The thing that strikes me first about the John Day River canyon in winter is the silence. With no whitewater or even riffles to speak of for long stretches, the river slips through the open canyon without so much as a ripple. It's a consuming quiet where only the dip of the oars punctuates the solitude. The clanking of a thermos off the steel hull of our weathered drift boat reverberates down the canyon. The thought of a landscape so oversized with so little in it – save what the forces of time have deposited here: rock, a few gnarled junipers and stiff, brown desert grasses – is almost difficult to comprehend. Massive basalt pillars and canyon walls climb hundreds of feet from the valley floor, crowding the horizon and lending a prehistoric feel. It's probably no coincidence that some of North America's richest fossil beds are located in this river valley that stretches almost 300 miles from its headwaters in the Elkhorn Mountains to its confluence with the Columbia. It's one of the longest un-dammed rivers in the western United States and one of the most remote in Oregon where much of the river winds through historic homesteads and sprawling ranches.

Posted inOpinion

St. Charles Stands Up for Patients

Source Weekly

Many people think the Catholic Church's position on contraception is Medieval. They're wrong – it's several centuries older than that.
“Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted,” wrote Clement of Alexandria in 195 AD.
The church's thinking has changed very little in the roughly 19 centuries since then, so we have no doubt Clement of Alexandria would have approved of the decision announced this week by Robert Vasa, bishop of the Diocese of Baker, to end the church's 92-year relationship with St. Charles Medical Center in Bend.

Posted inOpinion

The Wart On Terror: Pols and polls, Olympic greatness and NASCAR runs America

Source Weekly

The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from the land of monsters and mythology, chillin' with Goliath and Paul Bunyan – “On Giants: or, Why We Want To Be small” – on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.
“The Majority of Americans”
Playing politics with terrorism is an art form among Republicans, with Rudy Giuliani recently saying there were, “No domestic attacks under Bush,” but already one under Obama. Huh? Wasn't Rudy in NYC on that day – Surely we saw him in every 9-11 photo-op playing the mayor. Toying with reality is the new playground, “The majority of Americans… ” is the catchphrase spewing from GOP lips like “I'm mad about blah blah, I have a boo-boo and want my ba-ba… ,” at a Tea Party convention. Despite being swept from office, the GOP's denial is resolute, “There was no debate… No bipartisanship… ” is their excuse/accusation of why they do nothing, and won't be held responsible for the two wars Obama inherited and is now trying to win (see below), as well as this minor mess dubbed our Great Recession. Of course Dems are wimps and falling into the same old traps: Still unsure of where to hold the trial of 9-11 terrorist mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (FYI: Dick Cheney has yet to be charged,) and overly eager to allay fears, VP Joe Biden is “guaranteeing” a conviction, making a mockery of himself (as usual) and our legal system at the same time. Meanwhile, a new Washington Post-ABC poll found that two-thirds of all Americans are “unhappy” or “angry” at how the federal government is working (the only clear “majority” these days – one which neither party wants to claim) with those polled saying that “53 cents of every dollar” sent to Washington is “wasted.”

Posted inOpinion

These Damned Olympics

Source Weekly

Did you hear? A pack of polar bears escaped from the Greater Vancouver Zoo and have put the city, which is packed with tourists and foreign heads of state for the Olympic Games, on a code red bear watch? No, this didn't actually happen (not yet, at least) but this is the sort of news we expect to hear coming down from Vancouver, given how things have gone thus far. With rain and spring-like temperatures looming over the nearby mountains, snow has deteriorated at several of the event sites, leaving freestyle mogul races pushing through slush before hitting an artificially refrigerated jump, flipping about like a drunken Harry Potter, then landing on even slushier slush.

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