The Original Pine Tavern Restaurant & Bar on NW Brooks Street downtown at the foot of Oregon Avenue is a piece of Bend history. Founded in 1936 by the enterprising Maren Gribskov and Eleanor Bechen, it started as a restaurant serving the growing population of timber industry workers and their families. As Central Oregon’s economy […]
Monkless Belgian Ales
Posted inFood & Drink
Taste of Belgium
Care of Monkless
Monkless Brewing is far from new in Central Oregon, but it’s the only brewery currently specializing in Belgian-style beer. Now is a good time to learn (or re-learn) about Monkless, as they’ll soon have two locations! The owners just signed a lease to the “red building on the river,” downstream from the Old Mill, formerly […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Keeping It Real (Ale)
Cask-conditioned beer, done properly in Central Oregon
Few things in the world of beer are as passionately loved and at the same time misunderstood as true cask-conditioned “real ale.” Rescued from near extinction in the 1970s by the Campaign for Real Ale in its home country of England, cask-conditioned ales have remained an odd curiosity in the U.S. In recent years, a dedicated […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Sayonara, Shibumis
After a year in Bend, Shibumis Okonomiyaki Yakisoba food truck is leaving. On Facebook the owner said, “From Monkless to Spoken Moto we have been so fortunate to meet such amazing people. Thank you for all those who took a chance and tried something new. We hope you enjoyed our authentic Osaka style Okonomiyaki.” If […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Hot Sun, Cold Beer
How the 21+ set keeps from melting in Bend
It’s that time of year once again. Temps stick around in the nineties for what seems like forever, the sun beats down like a jackhammer, and the city of Bend temporarily forgets that it’s actually pretty chilly here most of the time. It’ll all be forgotten about come late September, no doubt, by which time […]
Posted inFood & Drink
A Small Slice of Belgium in Bend
Monkless Belgian Ales offers fresh beer styles to adventurous drinkers
One of the glorious personality traits about Central Oregon’s beer scene is its sheer inclusiveness. On one extreme, you have massive production facilities capable of producing tens of thousands of barrels per year—to say nothing of AB InBev’s recent foray into our collective doorstop. On the other, you have breweries that literally consist of a […]