Our next stop on the central oregon coast was Florence. By the way, driving up the coast is pretty amazing. Seriously, it’s picturesque beyond picturesque. It’s also twisty and bendy and a bit scary, but the nature and scenery is pretty stunning. Ocean and cliffs on one side, trees, trees, and more trees on the other. I loved it.

So Florence is a much bigger town. There are several large grocery stores, lots of restaurants, and a cute little historic area. After roaming that historic area a bit, we decided on dinner at Bridgewater, partly because the building was so cool. It’s an old and historic building. The place is pretty large inside with plenty of dining space as well as a bar. The bar is called Zebra, so there’s a zebra theme all over the place. We weren’t big fans of the zebra stuff, but otherwise, we liked the decor, especially the dark wood floors. When we sat down, we were presented with complimentary shrimp cocktail. Who doesn’t love that? The shrimp were pretty small, but they were still tasty. We were hungry so we totally appreciated getting these right away!

J was extra hungry, so he ordered the shrimp and scallop skewer appetizer. These were large shrimp and scallops that were grilled with a sweet and tangy sauce. The scallops were cooked perfectly! There was probably too much sauce on these, and they would have been even better with a more subtle touch of the sauce, but we both enjoyed these.

Because I ordered a proper entree, I got a side salad. I could have had a plain one, but the waiter pointed out that I could get on of their fancier salads as my side salad. When I was floundering, he said that they were extremely popular. So I went with it! Look at this thing! It’s a pretty regular salad to start, with romaine and re onions but it’s topped with mandarin oranges, avocado, and crushed hazelnuts! Whee! It tasted like a mild nutella with every bite! Loved it! It was a strange combination of sweet and tangy from the mandarin, sweet and nutty from the hazelnuts, spicy with the onions, creamy with the avocado, and crunchy with the lettuce. It had everything!

J got a cobb salad. It was only $10, and now we could see why. For whatever reason, they decided to chop up every single element of this salad down to nearly the molecular level. Everything was diced extremely fine,and the lettuce was absolutely shredded to the thinnest I’ve ever seen lettuce. The lettuce would have been good for taco bell tacos, but not for salad. When something crunchy gets shredded so fine, it loses the crunch. And lettuce should be somewhat crunchy, am I wrong? It tasted fine to J, but it still was not what he wanted or expected. So a bit of a letdown on this one.

My entree was the halibut. Man, did we eat a lot of halibut on on this trip! It was another big honkin piece of halibut with mashed sweet potatoes and sauteed veggies. Everything was just perfect. The fish was cooked just right, and plainly grilled, but that was just fine. The veggies were great, and I love me some mashed sweet potatoes! I had plenty of this fish leftover for J’s snack the next day. All of the staff is super young, like fresh off the bus green, but the service was fine too. No complaints here. All in all, this was a nice dinner, even despite the great minced cobb salad fiasco.

Bridgewater Restaurant
1297 Bay Street
Florence, OR 97439-9648
(541) 997-1133?

We left Bend and headed to Crater Lake. After witnessing its freakin majestic beauty, we drove a long-ass way to the central Oregon coast, and landed in Bandon. It’s a cute little town with a little marina and old town area with a “boardwalk”. It’s seriously tiny, but adorable. After partaking of some delicious espresso stouts in our hotel room, we jaunted over to the old town area for some grub. We got a recommendation from the innkeeper to go to his favorite place, but alas, that place was closed on tuesdays. So this is how we ended up at the Wheelhouse Restaurant. Or were we in the Crowsnest Lounge? I’m not sure, but it’s the same place. One is upstairs, and one is downstairs.

We were upstairs, so you could get some nice views of the marina. Did I mention how cute this little town was? Seafood was to be had this evening, but first, we got some bread. Let me say this, they serve delicious sourdough bread here.

Both our entrees came with side salads, but J’s was much more fancy, with little shrimp, golden raisins, and sunflower seeds. He ordered a much fancier entree.

Mine was much more standard. No shrimp, golden raisins, or sunflower seeds for me, but instead, a couple of cherry tomatoes and a slice of cucumber. Hmm, I think he won. But, I absolutely loved my dressing. It was kind of like a runny catalina dressing, but with a bit of a spicy kick, as if it had chili powder in it. It’s hard to describe, but I definitely liked it. It was strange, but in a good way.

J got the big old halibut entree. Check out this beautifully grilled hunk of halibut with brown rice and veggies. No need to mess with any kind of sauce or anything on this. It was pure and unadulterated fish. And it was delicious.

I got the fish and chips, which was also made from the halibut. These huge honking hunks of fried goodness were hot, flaky, and delicious. And so were the fries! The service was good and our waitress was very nice and friendly. The food came out quickly, but then again, there weren’t too many people there that night. We both greatly enjoyed our halibut meals!

Wheelhouse Restaurant & Crows Nest Lounge
125 Chicago St
Bandon, OR 97411
(541) 347-9331my

It’s been about 5 years since I was last in Bend, and the city has certainly grown since then. It is still just as beautiful. There are tons of new places eat. One of these new spots is the perfect new 10 Barrel Brewpub. They’ve been brewing beer for about three years, but the brew pub has only been open since February. It’s an amazing spot. It is warm, comfortable, and inviting. There is a nice outdoor eating area. The bar has two giant garage door type windows that open behind it, and you can just walk up to the bar, from the outside, and order food. So it’s one bar, with both seating indoors and out. The bartender was nice, friendly, and quite the multi-tasker. They have standard pub grub, salads, sandwiches, and pizzas. And of course, they have tons of their own beer. We only tried one and it was great.

J got the rib-eye chopped salad. Look how big and gorgeous this salad is! It is a giant heap of romaine, marinated rib-eye, red onion, tomato, cucumber, warm prosciutto, and avocado. It is typically served with a creamy gorgonzola dressing, but you can get whatever dressing you want. It’s a stupendous salad. I ate all the prosciutto out of it!

I got the 10 barrel mac & cheese. It was unbelievably great. It is large elbow pasta with a 4 cheese sauce, hunks of pancetta, and green onions, and is served in a hot cast iron skillet. You also get delicious, hot, buttery garlic toast. I love, love, loved it. Just like I love, love, loved this whole entire place. We really loved everything about this place, and would have happily gone back again and again. If you’re ever in Bend, please stop by! You will love it. It’s places like this that make me wish I lived in Bend!