If Portland, OR is “beervana”, then Bend has got to be it’s overachieving younger sibling. Situated right on the Deschutes river, on the eastern side of the central Cascade Range in Oregon, Bend boasts about 20 breweries right in town. Couple that with being only about 30 minutes from Mt. Bachelor ski resort, and surrounded by other outdoor recreation opportunities, Bend, OR is the perfect spot for the craft-beer loving, outdoor enthusiast.
We got the chance to spend a long weekend down in Bend at the end of February. The original plan was to get down there on Friday night, ski Saturday and Sunday, then drive back home Monday morning. Mother nature had some different plans, however. When we arrived Friday night, the first flurries of snow were beginning to fall. By the time we woke up in the morning, almost 6″ of snow had fallen, and it showed no signs of slowing down. With our 4-wheel drive engaged, we headed up to Mt. Bachelor in the hopes that something worthwhile would be open, but with winds gusting upwards of 50mph, most lifts were closed for the day. We decided to take our two day passes and begin them on Sunday, and stick around for the day on Monday. Having braved the drive up in a blizzard, we decided to do SOMETHING athletic, and headed over to the nordic center and rented some nordic skis. The one thing I learned from that day… alpine skiing in fresh, deep powder is fun… nordic skiing in fresh, deep powder is not fun. We were the first to make tracks out on some of the more remote trails, and the snow was so soft that we weren’t able to stay fully on top of it. After almost 6 miles of skiing in about 2.5 hours, we were done for the day, and headed back to the nordic lodge to return our stuff.
Before heading back down the mountain we grabbed some food at the nordic lodge, and let me tell you… this is the best kept secret at Mt. Bachelor. The burritos at the nordic center are SO GOOD, and are SO reasonably priced for the size. We’re talking like $10-12 for a rolled-up bath towel sized burrito. We went with a thai burrito with tofu that had peanut sauce, and an asian slaw, and a bacon burrito with avocado aioli and a green chili frittata rolled up right inside. They were the perfect re-fuel for our much easier drive back down the mountain.
After getting cleaned up at the hotel, it was time to walk around and visit a few breweries. Before the night was over, we hit 5 breweries. We began at Crux Fermentation Project, which was packed… and rightly so. At Crux they’ve got about 20 beers on tap at any given time, with classics like IPAs, porters, pilsners, but also with some more experimental, and barrel aged beers. The taproom is long and narrow, but has a large bar with a fermentation room in large windows behind it. Off to one end of the taproom is the large, shiny copper brew system just behind an open fermentation room. Outside the taproom they had an almost festival-like atmosphere with two fire pits, cornhole, some food trucks, and another bar serving all the same beers as the inside bar. We had three beers here, two IPAs and an experimental porter. All were above average. The porter seemed to have a small amount of smoked malt added, but maybe that was just the fire-pit… in any case, it was all good.
Our next stop was just a few blocks away, Boneyard Beer. We hit them just about an hour before closing, but the bartenders were welcoming and ready to share what they had to offer. The Boneyard beer tasting room is located in an old auto body shop, and the motorcycle-gang motif kind of reflects that. At the tasting room they only do tastings… no pints (they’re in the process of building a new pub where they’ll serve up food and pints). We got the flight of everything to share. All the beer was good, but I’ll end with this… the Notorious Triple IPA may have been the best triple IPA I’ve ever had… probably even one of the top 5 beers I’ve ever had. You’d never know it clocked in at around 11.5% ABV…
As the sun began to set, we headed up to Silver Moon Brewing, a decently sized brew-pub just on the outskirts of downtown Bend. We’ve had Silver Moon in the past, they distribute cans up into Washington state, but they’ve got a lot more interesting offerings on tap at the brewery. I enjoyed a glass of a barrel aged russian imperial stout that helped calm my muscles from the earlier nordic skiing workout. We also tried a passionfruit sour which was really well done. Not overly sweet, or too sour, it was just the right balance. It was the kind of sour beer that might get someone into sour beers. We didn’t eat here, but I took a look around at the food that was coming out of the kitchen, and it looked really good. I’m thinking we’ll have to come back and try some of their food sometime in the future.
With the sun down, we headed into downtown and stopped at Bend Brewing Company, located right on the Deschutes river. Being dinner time, they were fairly busy, so we grabbed some spots in the back bar area. They only had a few beers on tap, and they were good. This place definitely has the location going for it, and is recommended for that reason. The beer was good, but not the best in town, but it’s in a great location right downtown, so there’s no reason not to stop here. They’ve also got some really good looking food, which we unfortunately didn’t get to try on this trip.
We finished the night out at the Deschutes Brewery Bend Public House which is located just over a mile away from the main brewery across the river. The place was hopping, lots of people. Luckily we didn’t have to wait too long for a table. I’ll be honest, I don’t have a full memory of what I drank at Deschutes, but I remember it being good. The food was solid, and the desert was phenomenal. Even with my fuzzy memory, that peanut butter chocolate pie was something that will not soon be forgotten.
Sunday morning we woke up to more “storm in progress” alerts from the mountain, so we decided to take it easy and went out for breakfast at the McKay Cottage Restaurant. This is your classic old house-converted-to-high-end-breakfast-place that almost always has a long wait on the weekend. We hit them just before the rush around 8:30AM. All their dishes are creative, especially my Baja Chicken Hash stack, which was crispy tortillas with chicken, poblano, potatoes, onions, topped with poached eggs and hollandaise. That paired with a generous bloody mary, and I was stuffed for the ride up to the mountain (thankfully I didn’t have to drive this time). One last thing to say about McKay cottage… get one of their baked goods. Just do it… the scones were just to die for, and everything else looked just as good.
Sunday at the mountain was still a storm, but more lifts were open, so we went for it, and I’m glad that we did. Coming from the east coast, we’re used to skiing on firm, unforgiving surfaces (e.g. ice). During the couple hours that we skied, the snow never stopped. Almost another foot dropped during the day while we were there, giving us the opportunity to cut almost fresh tracks during every run. I had never skied in such deep powder, and as tiring as it was, it was also a blast. The one thing you didn’t want to do, however, was loose any equipment. The snow was so soft and so deep that a lost pole or ski might be gone until the spring thaw. The winds and the snow and the low visibility also kept a lot of people away, so the few lifts that were open really didn’t have huge crowds, especially later in the day. We capped the great day of skiing off with a quick visit to the Clearing Rock Bar in the base lodge where we had a Rippin Northwest Ale from another local brewery, Sunriver Brewing. If you have access to this beer… drink it immediately. It’s so good.
Sunday night we took it kind of easy and just headed across the street from our hotel to the Cascade Lakes Brewing Company Lodge… a large, two story brew-pub that was surprisingly empty for dinner. I think with the storm, and the fact that it was a Sunday night, made it so we almost had the place to ourselves. We enjoyed a shared plate of nachos (a generous portion), and some surprisingly spicy chicken wings. We finished the night off upstairs with some pool and darts in their game-room area before walking back to the hotel in the still-falling snow.
Monday morning came and the sun was back, and with it every local in town trying to head up to Bachelor for a powder day. It was an almost unbroken line of cars from downtown Bend for the 23 miles up to the mountain. It took us almost an hour and a half to get up there, but boy was it worth it. Beautiful clear blue skies gave us the opportunity to finally see the volcano that we’d been playing on and around the past few days. Unfortunately the summit lift and the far northwest lifts didn’t open at all during the day (too much cleanup from the storm), but we still had a good day out. The first few lift lines of the morning were long, but by the time lunch had come and go, lifts were walk-on. And while we weren’t getting the “free-refills” of powder that we had enjoyed the previous day, we were still able to find some powder stashes between trails.
Before beginning the drive home, we had one last stop in town, and it was so worth it. In an unassuming spot at the end of a little strip mall, across the street from a grocery store and the fire station is a little restaurant called Bangers & Brews Sausage House. They’ve got a pretty simple concept… pick a sausage, pick two toppings, and pick one sauce, then they put it all together on a bun (or on a salad for the gluten free option) for you to enjoy. What makes this place amazing is the sheer volume of options. They’ve got your traditional bratwurst, chorizo, and italian sausages, but also more exotic ones like wild boar with garlic, and duck/bacon with jalapenos. And the toppings… grilled onions, spicy peppers, cheese, chili. Finally, the sauces go much further than just mustard and ketchup (though they do have varieties of those). They’ve got a chimichurri sauce that is out of this world. They literally sell it by the jar. The owner actually told us that when they opened the place, he didn’t think it would sell out like that… but he says they make it fresh every day… sometimes twice a day because they sell so much of it. To make this visit even better, we hit them during their happy hour, which featured discounted beers and food. It’s probably a good thing we don’t live in Bend, because we’d probably be going to Bangers & Brews more than we should.
In conclusion… go visit Bend, OR. While it may not be as convenient to get to as Portland, it’s completely worth the trek. They’ve got the craft beer, they’ve got the fantastic food, adn to top it all off, they’ve got all the outdoor recreation that you could want right out their back door. We’re already planning a summer trip down there to do some hiking, biking, maybe a little kayaking, and lots more eating and drinking.
