Friend Heading To Bend - Tips?

A couple more questions.
Which of these breweries has better food, Deschuttes, Boneyard, Bend? Or do you recommend a place nearby? We’ll be there around dinner time. So the plan is to walk from the hotel in and around that area. I plan to hit the other side of the river Saturday night after a day of hiking.
Last question. We’re leaving out of RDM Sunday at 330. Looking for a place in Redmond for lunch and a pint before heading back to the airport? Thanks again. Looks like a heat wave this weekend.

 

I only ate at Bend. My wife had a pretzel, which was good (but it's a pretzel, I mean seriously). I had a schnitzel, which was very well prepared (tender, juicy, with a nice crispy breading), but under-seasoned.

Can't speak for anything else on the menu, or food at the other two locations.

 

Last time i ate at Brother Jons Alehouse. Planned to eat at Deschutes but that was a horrific crowd.
It was a good enough burger

 

Take a look at Boneyard’s menu. It strays a bit from the more traditional pub food at Deschutes and BBC, which could be a plus or minus for you. Also, Deschutes and BBC are two blocks away from each other right downtown while Boneyard’s pub is about a mile north of that (though closer to the Orchard District). My standard recommendation for brewpub food is Sunriver Brewing, but all 3 you mentioned are not far behind.

For RDM, Kobold and Wild Ride both make good beer but only have food trucks. If you have any interest in cask beer, Porter Brewing is worth a stop, though again food trucks only. I’m pretty ambivalent about Initiative, the lone Redmond brewery with in-house food.

IMO, the airport is close enough and small enough that I would suggest lunch in Bend first without worrying about congestion or other delays requiring the “get in close, first” approach that’s wise at most airports. Observe the airport and surrounding area when you fly in, and I think you’ll agree.

 

Noted.
Apologize. I have one more question. I know bottle shops were mentioned above. That’s cool. I told myself I wasn’t going to bring back any cans. But now I’m thinking I may bring back some Fort George cans. I enjoyed their ipa’s last October in Seattle. So will the stores mentioned above carry Fort George cans? And does Great Notion cans make it to Bend/Redmond area? Sorry, that’s 2 questions.

 

Fort George is readily available. The largest selection in general is at Market of Choice, but gas stations carry FG beers too.

In my experience, the best place for Great Notion is the Beer Stop in Redmond, though MOC, BTBS, and Newport may have a beer or few too.

 

Right on! Thx again.

 

Growlers/crowlers of Pallet Jack >> Ft George IPA cans

 

You mean CANS of Pallet Jack. That’s a thing now.

 

I did find the cans of Pallet Jack sitting right next to Ft George cans in the cooler at MOC yesterday. But didn’t get any PJ or FG cans. I didn’t care for the 1 month old dated cans. Yes I know some will go ahead and grab them. That’s fine, but I would like to see fresh or 2 weeks old cans instead. With all the cans I have still in my fridge those PJ and FG cans will turn into 2-3 month old cans before I finish them. Most of the cans at MOC were a month old or older.

 

Noted.
Sorry they weren’t fresh enough.

 

Nice! I knew they did some early in the COVID shutdowns, are they now canning consistently? If so might need to ask my relatives in PDX to ship me a PJ care package!

 

Just now getting back home from our short but sweet trip to Bend.
Day 1/Friday evening. After landing at RDM we got our rental and headed straight to our hotel. We were on the loose 30 minutes later. Our plans kinda shifted a bit. I want to hit up Bend, Deschuttes and Boneyard but we ended up eating bbq at Brady’s. Pretty good Q. So we stopped nearby 10 Barrel for stop 1. And what a surprise. I got a flight of 5. I didn’t know the flight/taster we’re free at 10B. I thought the beers were pretty good. I ended up with Apocalypse, Profus Juice, All Ways Down, Just The Hops and C4K. PJ was my favorite. After tipping the nice ladie we skipping on over to Boss Rambler. I remember see it on the way to Brady’s Q. Didn’t realize that was BR. Pretty cool looking place. Lots of people there, like 10 Barrel. But got seated right away. After the tasters at 10B, the 4 tasters I had at BR was a compared to 10B. 2 hazy’s and 2 WC. All 4 were spot on. AlohaHaze was my favorite, but fully enjoyed all. I would of brought AH home if they had any in 4pks. Right next door at Sun River I had the hazy Life Above. It was good for a hazy. And it was probably the most hazy’s I had that night. I’m not sure what Oregon considers a hazy? But 10B hazy looked similar to west coast. Although BR looked like a lite hazy they tasted the best. Sun River was good with the angus sliders we had with it. They were terrific. So our 2nd night ended up being night one.
Day/Night 2 (Saturday)- We started off with Bend Brewing. It was packed and we got there at 6pm after getting lucky and getting a parking spot right away. It was a very a busy area. So instead of waiting in line for a table we opted to our 2nd stop, Deschuttes around the blocks. That was a 45 minute wait. Nice classic style pub. Nice atmosphere for sure. Pizza was pretty good. A bit on the small size. RRBC’s is bigger, but thinner. Had a full pour of Squeezy Rider and half pour of HazeTron. First Deschuttes I had in many many moons. Both were good. But enjoyed the Squeezy Rider more. I would buy a 4pk of this. Instead of trying our luck with Bend we drove to Crux. I like the outside scene. But inside was a different story. It reminded me of Amazon. The move along in line and place your order. Once received move on. NEXT! The merch was right there in your face while your waiting in line. Nothing interested me. So I moved on to step 2, order beer. I got a flight. I don’t remember what I got to tell you the truth. But they were good to good+. The open windows looking outside just after sunset was beautiful. The outside seating is pretty cool, when it’s warm outside. The weekend weather was in the 70’s daytime. Good weather for a quick visit.
We ended up sneaking one more place in. Stopped in Boneyard today for lunch. Again, had a flight of 5 there. Had RPM, Venom, BAF, Pablo and Skunk. All good but I like the red ale Skunk the best. I ended up buying Venom on a whim when I stopped at Newport Market before our Boneyard lunch stop. I also bought FG Suicide Squeeze 6pk. Dated 2 weeks ago. Both were 2 weeks fresh. Pallet Jack cans were there but again, dated March 10. Too old for those old guy.
That was my beer related trip to Bend. We did hike the 8 mile (including the parking) summit loop at Smith Rocks State Park on Saturday. That place was freakin’ packed. But didn’t see many people on the loop trail. Most of the people stuck to the shorter trails or rock climbing. Awesome and beautiful park. Again the weather was a perfect 72 degrees. This morning we hiked to the Tumalo Falls trailhead. 4.5 miles round trip. The gate at the dirt road was locked, so we hiked from there to the waterfall lookout point. Again, beautiful. Good memories. Thanks for all the recs. Well noted. I will be visiting sooner than later. There’s more breweries and hiking to do. Cheers.

 

Booked for two nights in Bend next week. Staying in the Orchard District. Looking for WCIPAs mostly, good views, and good pizza.

Planning on hitting Bend Brewing (looks like the Devil's Cabbage is gone though) and Deschutes. Went to Boneyard and Crux the last time I was there, but will probably stop in again. Maybe Boss Rambler too.

Best tap houses?

 

Sunriver is great and right across from Boss Rambler. Jackson's Corner is awesome for food. I really like the outdoor space at Good Life.

 

FYI We still have Devil's Cabbage on draft and in cans at the pub still. We also have another one-off West Coast IPA on right now called Positively Brooks Street. Enjoy your trip. (P.S. Check out Bevel Beer, they make mostly hop forward beers (including a number of WCIPAs) and they have the best food truck selection in town. Both Aina Hawaiian and Southern Accents are amazing.) Cheers!

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any plans to visit Bend in the next few months, but can i just say that Devil's Cabbage is spectacular? Really good stuff.

 

Stop at 10 Barrel if anything for their 5oz tasters. There free.

 

Whitewater Taphouse and Broken Top Bottle Shop.