There's a new bookstore on Bend's westside: Camalli Book Company (the website is a blog, which is a good thing). The store's owner, Tina Davis, sent me the details:

Actually opened for the sale of Harry Potter 7 on Friday night, but the 'grand opening' is next week with the ribbon cutting by the chamber on Tuesday, 7/31. We're a 2400 sf general interest independent bookstore, located off of the Century and Simpson roundabout (in the Ray's shopping center, where the tile and stone place used to be), with our largest sections being children's books and fiction, though we're working to build our regional selection and keep titles by local authors in stock. We have two indies downtown of course (Book Barn and Pegasus, which I love), and obviously a big-box bookseller on the east side, but this is the first on the "west" side.

More bookstores in town is always a good thing. Its address is 1288 SW Simpson Avenue, Suite C. The Chamber ribbon cutting is today at 4:30, and there will be snacks and wine available.

Tina also sent along their official press release, which you can read after the jump.

Read the full press release

I have the August calendar of events for Thump Coffee.

Click through to see the events

I received this heads up in an email:

This weekend the Hawaii Ironman Champion, Michellie Jones, will be coming to Bend Bike N Sport to give a talk and take questions about her life as a professional triathlete. The event is at 7:00 pm this Saturday at the shop. Full details and a photo are on our website (www.bendbikensport.com) or talk to Beverly at the shop 322-8814. Thanks.

There aren't too many people who can complete the Ironman, so I imagine this would be an interesting evening whether you were into sports/biking or not. They have a further bit about Jones on their page:

Michellie Jones has been on the professional triathlon circuit for more than 20 years. She’s won more championships, races and accolades than any other athlete, traveling the globe with husband Pete Coulson as her manager, coach and mentor…and they are here for the first time ever in Central Oregon at Bend Bike ‘n Sport.

Blogging here this week is likely going to be light; I'm getting geared up for the Oregon Brewers Festival up in Portland this weekend so a lot of my focus is on, well, beer and Portland.

Who else is going to the Brewfest this weekend?

I held the drawing for the free tickets to The Fray today and have a winner: TJ Hubbard of Bend! Congrats TJ—I hope the show is good!

And thanks to everyone who entered (quite a few). As promised, I won't be keeping anyone's address information (nor will I give it out to anyone).

I've talked about Zydeco before here—I really, really love the place—and one of my last Zydeco posts was about their poor men's room layout. Good news! While the physical layout of the men's room is the same, they've since put up a heavy dark curtain in front of the urinal just inside the door. No more visibility issues!

Also of note, they still have Jubelale on tap, at least as of tonight (Saturday). The waitress told me they'd ordered a few extra kegs and were still working through it. Works for me.

The Fray is playing at the Les Schwab Amphitheater this next Wednesday, July 25th, and just like my friend Simone, I get the chance to do a giveaway of a pair of tickets to the show—a $70 value! Mine will be a drawing as well, so go to the contact form if you're interested and fill out your name, address, and email address—make sure it's your complete address, so the tickets can be sent to you.

It's cutting things close, but since I'm late blogging this I'll let my deadline run until 11:59pm Saturday, July 21st, and I'll draw the winner on Sunday. The tickets will be overnighted direct to the address you give.

(I won't keep anybody's addresses on record, either, once this drawing is done.)

These tickets are available thanks to the site NowWhat.com—so be sure to visit nowwhat.com for exclusive behind-the scenes videos, tour photos and more.

The gates to the show on Wednesday open at 5pm, and the show itself starts at 6:30. Don't miss it! Tickets are $35 each, so this is a great opportunity.

From the Les Schwab Amphitheater about the show:

It's been a whirlwind couple of years for The Fray, the Denver-based quartet whose earnest and melodic songs have been striking a huge chord with audiences. Formed in 2002 by Isaac Slade (vocals, piano) and Joe King (guitar, vocals), The Fray owe all of their early success to their organic, grassroots beginnings. In other words, they did it the old fashioned way: they earned it. It's a story you don't hear much anymore these days: local area gigs led to enthusiastic local press and local radio support.

Duncan over at Pegasus Books revealed on his blog today that he is opening a second store here in Bend.

I'm planning to open a second store in Bend. Let me be clear — it is an additional store. Not instead, not substituting for....a complete new store, henceforth know as P2. (I have the idea of a sign with a logo of my flying white horse, alongside a second flying horse that's black, and the letters, "PEGASUS, too.")

If you think of the main arteries in Bend, you have to say that 3rd Street (old Hwy. 97) is the biggest north/south commercial street, and Greenwood (Hwy. 20) is the biggest east/west. The other main commercial east/west is Franklin. (Portland/Olney is a traffic artery, but not commercial.)

This is the corner I'm looking at. I've been surprised when I use the Sweetheart Donuts stand, (bright red, on the corner) as my landmark that people don't know where it is, but I'm talking about the building just south of the Murry and Holt car lot on the corner of Franklin and 3rd. The one that has been a furniture store over the years. Great location, lousy building.

The new owner is fixing it up nicely. It's pretty much gutted, right now, so you have to use your imagination, but it fits the number one priority for me to open a new store.

That is a pretty good location, I'd say. A comic book shop next to a doughnut shop. Really, does it get any better?

It's the month for festivals: the Redmond Sunfest is this weekend, July 21st and 22nd. It opens at 4pm Friday, until 10, and 8am Saturday (also until 10). It's free, and there will be free live music, vendors, food, wine and beer, a children's area, and more.

Located in Downtown Redmond on 7th Street and Evergreen, in the Redmond Plaza adjacent to the Chamber building, this fun filled weekend will feature a variety of live music and stage performers, the "Rock Chuck Ramble"� fun run, a pancake breakfast, artists and crafters from around the Northwest as well as the SELCO Community Credit Union children's area and a Downtown Discovery Hunt where child participants are given a "treasure"� map to follow that takes them to local retail locations to collect "treasure"� (a token charm to make a bracelet.) The greatest aspect to Redmond Sunfest is that it offers something for everyone to do.

The event was created as a way to bring the community of Redmond together and raise funds for the non profit Redmond Arts Foundation which works towards sustaining art in public places throughout Redmond. The event still supports the Redmond Arts foundation and a portion of the events proceeds will be donated to the foundation.

Sounds like fun, and it's (mostly) free—if you enjoyed SummerFest last weekend, you'll enjoy this.

Over on Diner Life (the Jake's Diner blog), Lyle has posted an offer to get a free cinnamon roll (the "Elvis"):

Here is my blog special. If you print off a copy of one of these pictures, bring it in to Jake's, and sign up for email specials; I will give the first 10 to sign up a free coupon for an "Elvis".

Of course, you have to go visit his blog and read the post! As for the Elvis, it's a cinnamon roll with peanut butter and bananas on it (peanut butter and banana sandwiches were Elvis' favorite). Won't be everyone's cup of tea, but that sure sounds good to me. Maybe I'll go get a free one...

Did you know you could be watching the Tour de France at Thump Coffee every day for the rest of the month? So I'm told:

Wednesday, July 11 through Saturday, July 29

Will Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara hold on to the yellow jersey? Tune into televised coverage of the Tour de France at Thump Coffee, everyday until the last stage on Saturday, July 29. Caffeine doping is encouraged.

I mentioned earlier that BMC was going to have a drawing on August 16th to give away a bunch of cool prizes, and you can sign up at the Munch and Musics between now and then.

Click through on that graphic to get the full-size flyer for the details.

Just show up at the BMC booth, say high and sign up. You have to be 18 and over to be eligible, though.

Tonight is the first night of the six-week-long Munch & Music series in Drake Park—you know, the free music series? It starts at 5:30 and goes until 8:30. Tonight's performer is Karla Bonoff.

There's also 20 food booths, arts and crafts vendors, a children's area, and a beer garden. If you need it, their site also has a PDF site map online.

The music is free, but the food and drink isn't—and, don't forget, dogs are not allowed at the event, either.

Be sure to check out the BMC booth, too. They'll have a wading pool to cool off in (it's gonna be hot!), and you can sign up for some big giveaways they'll be drawing for on August 16—the final Munch & Music. Among the prizes? A big screen TV, an iPod Nano, Revo Sunglasses, Coronary Calcium Screenings, and more. (I'll blog about it separately when I get the full details.)

The Bulletin published their SummerFest guide, which includes a comprehensive map of festivities, detailed schedules, artist profiles and more. It's a good resource, only it's not online anywhere that I can find it. So I'll summarize a bit.

• Beers on tap will include local brews from Deschutes, Silver Moon, and Bend Brewing; there will be a handful of other beers on tap as well.
• Wine will be available from local wineries Volcano Vineyards and Maragas, and three others.
• The alcohol zone will be in the usual food court areas: Oregon and Minnesota Streets, the Wells Fargo parking lot, and the alleyway between them. You'll need to get a wristband, of course, to buy alcohol—and they can't start serving til 12 noon.
• The big children's area will be next to the Mirror Pond Gallery, at the top of Drake Park in the parking lot area.
• Three main artist sections along Wall Street.
• Bond Street will be open to traffic, as will Greenwood/Newport and Franklin. Minnesota, Oregon, Wall between Greenwood and Newport and just south of Franklin, and Brooks Street are all closed to traffic.
• Five(!) performance stages dot the area.

So, the usual.

The SummerFest website has been updated to include their own PDF map of the Festival, too. Get it here, though it's not as good as the Bulletin's map, IMHO.

Yep, it's that time of year again: SummerFest! It's this weekend, the 14th and 15th, downtown. Saturday it runs from 11am until 10pm, Sunday from 11am until 6pm.

SummerFest is my favorite of the seasonal festivals, and in my opinion the best. They have a huge kids area (compared to any of the others), lots of live music, tons of shopping, tons of food, beer and wine, and it's just a good time all around.

We'll be down there for sure on Saturday, it should be a nice day for it—currently, weather forecasts call for 88 degrees and partly cloudy.

On a side note, why can't they register the domain name "bendsummerfest.com" for their site? Everyone I know refers to the Festival as "SummerFest" so it seems to me it should be a no-brainer. Oh well. Maybe I'll snag it.

So this 4 Peaks Music Festival is looking like it's going to be the Woodstock of Bend or something... taking place at the Rockin "A" Ranch out in Tumalo August 3 and 4, they'll even have camping available.

Actually it sounds kind of cool. You can buy tickets for either Saturday only, or the entire weekend, and if you want to camp you'll need to buy a pass for that, too. The one-day ticket is $35, the full weekend pass is $50, and the camping pass is $20 (but does not include admission).

Kids under 10 are free.

They'll have two stages and quite a line up. Not to mention vendors—food, drink, and craft.

Be sure to check out their FAQ page too, for more details (no pets, no outside alcohol, etc.).

Lavanaut writes with a tip:

If you like Baldy's BBQ, next time you're there ask your server for "Cat's Meow". It's a secret BBQ sauce that they make which is spicier, smokier and just more delicious in general that what's on the table by default. They don't advertise it at all, we became friends with a server there and she let us in on the secret. There's no extra charge either.

I thought about trying to snap some pictures of the Pilot Butte fireworks show last night, but ultimately I don't think they'd turn out as good as I'd like. In the end, though, it doesn't matter, because Jen got some fantastic shots of the show... including the Fire on the Butte finale!

The new Summer 2007 issue of Gusto is out, and it features their 2007 Reader's Choice Awards for local restaurants. And you all know I'm a sucker for "Best Of" lists, right?

(As an aside, have I never blogged about Gusto here before? Apparently not... it's the ultra-glossy "premiere" magazine for Central Oregon's food and drink scene... a la Bend Living. The main difference is, it's free. I actually rather like it, despite that I sometimes find it overly pretentious.)

Some of the highlights...

• McKay Cottage was voted 4 titles: Best Service, Best Waitress, Best Breakfast, Best Burger.
• Toomies was voted Best Asian.
• La Rosa was voted Best Mexican.
• Tumalo Feed Company was voted Best Steak.
• Scanlon's was voted Best Fine Dining.
• Deschutes Brewery was voted Best Family Dining (???) and Best Local Brewery.

So what's up with the Brewery and "Best Family Dining"? I mean, we've taken the kids there and they like it, but best? I wouldn't have seen that coming...

We went out of town for the weekend and when we got back it was July. Where'd the year go? The Fourth is in two days already!

Lots of things happening, too.

• Start the day at 8am with the annual Pancake Breakfast in Drake Park.
• If you feel like doing something healthier than pancakes and syrup, the Spark Your Heart 5K Run/Walk kicks off at 8am. $25 registration fee through midnight tonight, $30 for late registration.
• The Pet Parade starts at 10am downtown.
• After the Parade, the festival continues in Drake Park, which is set up with artisan and food booths, live music, and games from 11 to 4.
• The library is having their Friends of the Library Summer Sale, from 10 to 4. That's at the usual location of the administration building.
• The Deschutes Historical Society has free admission and ice cream all day, from 10 to 4:30.
• Ride along in the Freedom Ride! Join other riders at Pioneer Park at 2pm and be a part of the bike parade around town.
• The Farmer's Market is going on as usual, at the top of Drake Park from 3 to 7.
• Finally, the fireworks show from Pilot Butte starts at 10pm.

Update: Adding the two events from Jen and Lyle, in the comments.

• The Bend Elks are playing the Spokane Riverhawks, starting at 7pm.
• Jake's Diner is hosting a benefit BBQ for Central Oregon Veterans Outreach, starting at 6pm. Chicken and ribs and a live blues band!