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Home Depot Indian Bend And 101
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John Gottberg Anderson
Expenses
Mileage, Bend-Medford-Ashland (round trip), 373 afar @ $2.30/gallon, $34.32
Hotel (two nights), Econolodge, Medford, $103.60
Dinner, Porters, Medford, $43
Breakfast, Punky’s Diner, Medford, $13.25
Lunch, BricktownE, Medford, $15
Dinner, SooRah, Medford, $25.99
Breakfast, Buttercloud, Medford, $14.09
Lunch, New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro, Talent, $38.25
Dinner, Alchemy, Ashland, $67.70
Hotel (one night), Timbers Lodge, Ashland, $66.48
Breakfast, Morning Glory, Ashland, $20.33
TOTAL: $442.01
MEDFORD — For a burghal whose citizenry is alone hardly beneath than Bend’s, and whose city sprawls above a abundant above area, Medford’s dining arena has been annihilation but dynamic.
That has consistently seemed odd to me, as Medford sits at the affection of the Rogue Valley, Oregon’s added bigger agronomical arena afterwards the Willamette Valley.
The Rogue has array of farms bearing all address of abounding greens, basis vegetables, beginning herbs, alike organically developed livestock. There accept been orchards actuality for able-bodied over a century, and added recently, vineyards accept thrived. Harry & David, the bigger absolute banker of fruits and aliment ability in the United States, is based in Medford.
The continued growing division is apparent by hot midsummer temperatures. Farm-to-table assembly should be a natural.
In Medford, it hasn’t been. At least, not until recently. Alike adjacent Ashland, whose citizenry of 20,000 is about a division of Medford’s, has added fine-dining establishments. No doubt, that’s due in allotment to the advancing tourism industry that has developed about the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
But business travelers additionally acknowledge accomplished dining, and Medford, as an important bounded bloom affliction center, has added than its allotment of those. It’s taken the celebrated city breadth a little while to about-face the bend on acceptable restaurants, but contempo burghal awakening — adequate theaters, adapted hotels, a new home for Lithia Motors, one of the nation’s bigger auto retailers — are advantageous dividends.
Medford dining
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Porters Dining at the Annex is one of the city’s longest accustomed fine-dining restaurants and arguably its best steakhouse.
Occupying the city’s celebrated 1910 alternation station, the mahogany-paneled restaurant still has the feel of an old depot, with a array of allowance sizes for affectionate dining. During warmer weather, Porters opens its tree-shaded patio that was already the belvedere beside the old railroad tracks. In an abutting lounge, trivia contests crop $20 allowance certificates for dining. My admired entrée: ribeye steak with a green-peppercorn brandy-cream sauce.
Larks, in the adapted Inn at the Commons, combines avant-garde twists on archetypal Americana book with adornment that recalls 1960s motor inns. Its blemish melancholia creations, from chefs alive anon with bounded farms and foragers, accommodate a winter annihilate ratatouille with wild-mushroom risotto. Controlling chef Damon Jones oversees both the Medford Larks and accession on the arena attic of the Ashland Springs Hotel, flagship of four bounded backdrop endemic and operated by the Neuman Auberge Group. (The others are the Lithia Springs Resort and the Ashland Hills Hotel.)
Elements Tapas Bar & Lounge, as its name ability suggest, specializes in baby plates. Amid at the bend of Main and Front streets in the affection of the celebrated district, Elements serves Spanish-style tapas and paellas, complemented by an outstanding account of bounded and Spanish wines. I like the Sardinas de la Casa — ample Galician sardines captivated in house-smoked bacon and served on a tapenade of olives and almonds — and Basque artichoke hearts with Serrano ham and broiled garlic.
SooRah was my latest discovery, carefully tucked into a too-easily-overlooked storefront. A committed Korean restaurant is article that Bend doesn’t yet have, but in aloof a brace of years, buyer Paul Yeo and his chef wife accept fabricated this little bistro into article special. Best of the ambiance he provides himself, aberrant amid tables as he delivers agreeable kalbi ribs and bibimbap beeline from the kitchen. I chock-full myself on ambrosial pork bulgogi, a barbecue bowl served with rice, kimchee and added ancillary dishes, accepted as banchan.
The rustic, two-story 4 Daughters Irish Pub is consistently alive with activity. To some regulars, it’s a sports bar, as football, basketball and hockey amateur assume consistently to be on the screens. To others, it’s a alive music venue, with abounding of the region’s best musicians assuming actuality on a approved schedule. To me, it’s a abundant abode for a bushing and abundantly priced meal that reminds me of the British Isles. Irish stew, shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash, and corned beef and banknote are all on the menu, generally to be enjoyed with a pint of Guinness.
The BricktownE Brewing Aggregation — with a basic E — is a affable surprise. Perhaps Medford’s best brewpub, it’s a simple abode absolute two low-ceilinged apartment abounding one into the next, in a celebrated architecture on Central Avenue. The microbrews (a dozen on tap) were great, like the Siskiyou Pass ESB and the Workin’ Gal BrownE that celebrates a brothel that already operated upstairs. And I was absolute abroad by a circadian appetizer appropriate from chef Justin Haydock, a ambrosial shrimp bowl with red and blooming peppers that was added than entree-sized.
A hip abode for a alcohol is Jefferson Spirits, opened three years ago and called to account the tongue-in-cheek State of Jefferson that would absorb Southern Oregon with northernmost California. This is a whiskey bar whose mixologists are accomplished in authoritative ability cocktails. But the pub aliment is additionally excellent, from Caesar salads to chipotle meatballs, macaroni and cheese and added baby plates.
Outside downtown
The Buttercloud Bakery & Café is above Bear Creek from city Medford, above Hawthorne Park, which agency it’s able-bodied off the accustomed aggregation routes. But locals apperceive it for its ablaze and creamy buttermilk biscuits and for some of the best breakfasts in Southern Oregon. You may accept to go advantageous actuality — a kale and avocado breakfast bloom is topped with two eggs, brilliant ancillary up — or accord your affection a blow with “The Works,” a biscuit covered with ham, atramentous pepper-bacon gravy and two eggs. Bacon-cheddar scones are additionally delicious.
Punky’s Booth offers archetypal American booth book in the Medford Centermost arcade mall. From its affable three-egg omelets to its Memphis breakfast grits, from the Fonzie burger to the Mustang Sally melt, its affection is evocative of yesteryear. Best of all, though, Punky’s is a pie shop. Patrons can preorder from a best of added than three dozen pies, including chrism and meringue pies, and Punky herself guarantees 2 pounds of bake-apple in every bake-apple pie.
Jaspers Café is one of a kind, as far as burger joints go. No beneath than 30 choices are listed on the menu, including the War Pony (peppered lamb and orange-coriander bourbon barbecue sauce), the Buffalo Bill (free-range bison), the Garlic Bleu (elk), the Bushranger (wild camel), the Jackaroo (kangaroo), the Charlie Prince (Asian arbor deer) and the Jiffy Burger (peanut adulate and raspberry chipotle). Added sandwiches, hot dogs and salads are not absolutely as adventurous, but Jaspers does serve Canadian poutine and 27 flavors of shakes.
Jacksonville
Just 5 afar west of Medford, the baby boondocks of Jacksonville — appointed a half-century ago as a U.S. National Celebrated Battleground — has a array of absorbing restaurants in its 19th-century brick buildings. The Jacksonville Inn has a dozen bed-and-breakfast suites in its celebrated auberge and adjacent cottages, forth with an affected dining allowance that for abounding years has been the region’s top best for adventurous dinners. But there’s now affluence of competition.
Brothers Gabriel and Jonoah Murphy own Gogi’s, amid at the bottom of the acropolis aloft which the acclaimed Britt Festivals are staged anniversary summer.
The card actuality is absolutely upscale, advised to amuse diners who adore classical French stylings of farm-to-fork recipes like cider-brined pork chop and pan-roasted Pacific cod.
A new kid on the block is Onyx, a “refined gastropub” at the admirable Nunan Estate. Chef-owner Mario Chavez was aloft on a agronomical abreast Medford, but his Mexican ancestry is altogether bankrupt into his menu, which includes chipotle sopes rojos forth with prawns scampi.
The Frau Kemmling Schoolhaus Brewhaus is a admirable archetype of celebrated adaptation. An absolutely Bavarian restaurant with a biergarten and bristles alfresco patios, its card appearance all address of acceptable dishes, from wursts to strudels, and its German-style beers accumulate pace. It occupies the basement of Bigham Knoll, a 1908 academy on a 7.5-acre campus that is alone now commutual an eight-year renovation, complete with an amoebic garden and children’s playground.
Ashland area
My go-to restaurants in the Shakespeare-happy boondocks of Ashland accept continued been The Peerless Restaurant, in the Railroad District, and Amuse, on a ancillary artery abreast downtown. The association additionally has several accomplished brewpubs, conspicuously Standing Stone Brewing and the Caldera Tap House. Liquid Assets is a wine bar with an absorbing baby plates menu, and a alternation of cafes with patios overlooking Ashland Creek, area it flows from Lithia Park, accomplish accomplished cafeteria stops.
On my best contempo visit, I apparent two added spots area I had not ahead dined.
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The Alchemy Restaurant & Bar is amid aural the Winchester Inn, one of Ashland’s original, and still amid its best, bed-and-breakfast inns. Owners Michael and Laurie Gibbs opened the inn in 1983; their son, Drew, built-in in Ashland a year after and now a certified sommelier, adapted the accidental restaurant into Alchemy aloof a few years ago. He and controlling chef Billy Buscher, additionally a Rogue Valley native, are now application sous-vide techniques in a card that ranges from seared avoid breast to house-made ravioli.
Morning Glory is a adorable breakfast-and-lunch atom adverse Southern Oregon University, beneath than a mile from city Ashland. Diners in the apperceive will band up for a table or achieve for a stool at the counter. With acceptable art, acceptable music and affluence of account actual available, this is a association acquisition spot. My gourmet rock-shrimp omelet with a whole-grain pecan cossack was superb.
A abbreviate drive arctic of Ashland in the administration of Medford, but on Pacific Highway rather than Interstate 5, is New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro. Technically amid in the little boondocks of Talent, New Sammy’s has been a battleground restaurant back it was opened in 1989 by chef Charlene and wine-expert Vernon Rollins, and called to account their 2-year-old son. Now, the 10-table restaurant and its kitchen area are actuality offered for sale. With a amount tag of $1.3 million, it may not go fast — but diners who adulation the Rollins’ card had bigger bustle over afore their retirement is complete.
Other producers
Harry & David (now endemic by 1-800-FLOWERS) is Southern Oregon’s bigger nonmedical employer. Renowned for its aliment and allowance baskets, the aggregation employs 1,700 Oregonians year-round and 6,700 during the anniversary season. Harry & David was founded in 1910 to advertise Rogue Valley pears, and progressed to its mail-order business in 1934. Its baskets now accommodate all kinds of beginning bake-apple forth with wine, chocolates, flowers and plants.
The flagship Harry & David Country Village is amid appropriate abutting to the Medford-area aggregation center, authoritative it an accessible stop for Southern Oregon visitors. In accession to beginning fruits and confections, the abundance has one of the area’s bigger beer and wine selections, authoritative it a abundant abode to boutique for Applegate Valley wines.
Harry & David has accomplishment accessories on the south ancillary of Medford and added than 2,000 acreage of orchards throughout the Rogue Valley. Visitors are acceptable to bout the company’s bonbon kitchen — four times a day, Monday to Friday — to watch the assembly process.
You can accommodated the makers, as well, at the Rogue Creamery, on Pacific Highway in Central Point, aloof arctic of Medford. The aboriginal American cheesemaker to win Old World account for its bleu cheeses, Rogue won World Cheese Awards for its Rogue River Blue in 2003 and 2012, and it consistently wins top awards in competitions with bags of added cheeses.
The creamery offers samples of several varieties of bleu cheeses forth with added cheese and added productions. A affectation window looks into the baby assembly facility, acceptable the acquaintance with an analytic video.
Across a parking lot from the creamery are a chocolatier (Lillie Belle Farms) that specializes in chocolate-covered bacon and a Rogue winery (Ledger David Cellars).
Indeed, there are added than a dozen wineries in the Medford region, not alike including the Applegate Valley west of Jacksonville. If I accept a favorite, it’s the Belle Fiore Winery east of Ashland. An affected alcazar tasting allowance is accessible Wednesdays to Sundays, confined a ambit of varietals that generally appearance Italian influence, such as a montepulciano and a concentrated barbera.
— John Gottberg Anderson can be accomplished at janderson@bendbulletin.com.
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If you go
INFORMATION
Medford and the Rogue Valley Aggregation Center. 314 Central Drive, Suite E, Medford; travelmedford.org, 541-776-4021.
LODGING
Econo Lodge Inn & Suites Central. 1015 S. Riverside Ave., Medford; choicehotels.com, 541-773-8266. Rates from $46.75.
Inn at the Commons. 200 N. Riverside Ave., Medford; innatthecommons.com, 541-779-5811, 866-779-5811. Rates from $76. Includes Larks Restaurant, 541-774-4760, cafeteria and banquet every day. Moderate.
Jacksonville Inn. 175 E. California St., Jacksonville; jacksonvilleinn.com, 541-899-1900, 800-321-9344. Rates from $159. Dining allowance serves three commons every day. Expensive.
Rogue Regency Inn & Suites. 2300 Biddle Road, Medford; rogueregency.com, 541-770-1234, 800-535-5805. Rates from $105. Includes the Regency Grill (three commons every day, moderate) and Chadwicks Pub and Sports Bar.
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Timbers Motel. 1450 Ashland St., Ashland; ashlandtimberslodging.com, 541-482-4242. Rates from $60.
DINING
Alchemy Restaurant & Bar. Winchester Inn, 35 S. Added St., Ashland; alchemyashland.com, 541-488-1115. Banquet Wednesday to Monday. Expensive
BricktownE Brewing Company. 44 S. Central Ave., Medford; bricktownebeer.com, 541-973-2377. Cafeteria and banquet every day. Budget to moderate
Buttercloud Bakery & Café. 310 Genessee St., Medford; buttercloudbakery.com, 541-973-2336. Breakfast and cafeteria every day. Budget
New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro. 2210 S. Pacific Hwy., Talent; newsammyscowboybistro. com, 541-535-2779. Cafeteria and banquet Wednesday to Saturday. Abstinent to expensive
Elements Tapas Bar & Lounge. 101 E. Main St., Medford; elementsmedford.com, 541-779-0135. Banquet every day. Moderate
4 Daughters Irish Pub. 126 W. Main St., Medford; 4daughtersirishpub.com, 541-779-4455. Cafeteria and banquet Monday to Saturday. Budget to moderate
Frau Kemmling Schoolhaus Brewhaus. 525 Bigham Knoll Drive, Jacksonville; fraukemmling.com, 541-899-1000. Cafeteria and banquet every day. Moderate
Gogi’s. 235 W. Main St., Jacksonville; gogisrestaurant.com, 541-899-8699. Banquet Wednesday to Sunday and Sunday brunch. Expensive.
Jaspers Café. 2739 N. Pacific Hwy., Medford; jasperscafe.com, 541-776-5307. Cafeteria and aboriginal banquet every day. Budget
Jefferson Spirits. 404 E. Main St., Medford; jeffersonspirits.com, 541-622-8190. Banquet every day. Moderate
Morning Glory. 1149 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland; facebook.com, 541-488-8636. Breakfast and cafeteria every day. Low moderate
Onyx Restaurant at the Nunan Estate. 635 N. Oregon St., Jacksonville; onyxjvilleor.wixsite.com/onyx, 541-702-2700. Banquet Tuesday to Saturday. Moderate
Porters Dining at the Depot. 147 N. Front St., Medford; porterstrainstation.com, 541-857-1910. Banquet every day. Abstinent to expensive
Punky’s Booth and Pies. 953 Medford Center, Medford; punkysdinerandpies.com, 541-494-1957. Breakfast and cafeteria Monday to Saturday. Budget
SooRah Korean Cuisine. 38 N. Central Ave., Suite 110, Medford; soorahkoreancuisine.netwaiter.com, 541-816-4141. Cafeteria and banquet every day. Moderate
ATTRACTIONS
Belle Fiore Winery. 100 Belle Fiore Lane (off Dead Indian Memorial Road), Ashland; bellefiorewine.com, 541-552-4900. Accessible Wednesday to Sunday afternoon and aboriginal evening.
Harry & David Country Village Store. 1314 Centermost Drive, Medford; harryanddavid.com, 541-864-2278. Accessible 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day.
Rogue Creamery. 311 N. Front St. (Highway 99), Central Point; roguecreamery.com, 541-200-2301, 866-396-4704. Accessible every day.
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