Back from spring break—since Friday, actually (yes, we actually went out of town)—and found this backlogged in my email from a few days before we left. Sounds pretty cool, and taking place out at the Terrebonne Depot.

Join us for a special evening of great food and beer!

On Tuesday March 30, 2010 we will be hosting a private Brew Master Dinner with Silver Moon Brewing of Bend. This will be a five course dining event paired with selected beers from Silver Moon Brewing.

The evening will feature a very special dinner menu created by Executive Chef Kristin Yurdin. Tyler Reichert owner of Silver Moon Brewing will be at the event and will take us through his fine local beverages.

Tickets are $45.00 with beer pairing or $35.00 without beer.

The event will start at 6pm.

Stay tuned for the special dinner menu with beer pairing in the next few weeks.

Reservations are required and space is limited so make your reservations soon!

Reservations can be made by e-mail or phone 541.548.5030.

And, here's the menu they're presenting:

1st Course
Pork Belly Napoleon with Creole Barbecue Sauce
Saison de Moon

2nd Course
House Salted Cod Brandade with Mustard Seed Sauce and Balsamic Vinegar Reduction
Hop Thief Pale Ale

3rd Course
Braised Beef Short Ribs in Red Wine Sauce with House Smoked Boar Sausage over Creamy Polenta
Brown Eyes Ale

4th Course
Green Apple and Jicama Slaw with Crumbled Crater Lake Blue Cheese and Spiced Pecans
Snake Bite Porter

5th Course
Caramel Pot de Crème with Russian Tea Cookie
Hoptygon Imperial IPA

On our way out to the Pumpkin Patch Saturday, we stopped at the Terrebonne Depot for lunch. I remembered that John Anderson had given it a pretty good review in the Bulletin sometime back, and since it's right on the way to the Pumpkin Patch (and Smith Rock, which will likely be more interesting to people), we decided to stop there and try it out.

The building is a renovated train depot originally built in 1911. Their about page has a detailed history of the building, including a video of moving the entire building on rails (because there was no solid foundation before the renovation).

It's a nice, open setup, with an expansive open dining area and a central bar with additional seating. And that's a full bar—beer, wine, liquor. The current beer on tap was Cascade Lakes' 20" Brown, Silver Moon's Pilsner, Deschutes' Mirror Pond (I think), and Paulaner Oktoberfest, which replaced (again, I think) Bend Brewing. So almost all local beers on tap (and a bottled selected, too).

Food was really good, I thought; I went basic with a buffalo burger (bacon cheeseburger, actually), my wife had the Greek pita, and the kids had the chicken tenders and the cheese pizza. My wife substituted fries with the soup of the day, a tasty tomato basil.

Service was also good and timely and we were able to just beat the lunch rush—it filled up after we got there.

All in all, a good place to eat. And I think the only place I've eaten in Terrebonne!

Terrebonne Depot
400 Smith Rock Way (just east of Highway 97)
Terrebonne, OR 97760
541-548-5030

This weekend we visited the Central Oregon Pumpkin Company (again), the one over in Terrebonne. We didn't spend the amount of time as we did last year, but it was still a nice trip. This is the place that also has the corn maze ("Corn Maize" they call it)—this year, the theme is pirates. Check out the maze:

Pirate ship, with Jolly Roger, and desert isle. The maze costs $5.50 for kids 6-12 (under 5 are free), and $7.50 for adults 12 and over.

They have some great pumpkins, too. You can go out into the field to pick your own pumpkin, or select from the variety they've already harvested; what's surprising to me is that variety, presumably grown there. There are large and mini pumpkins of course, but also white pumpkins, pie pumpkins, butternut squashes, Boers, Cinderella pumpkins, festivals, Jarrahdales, Long Island cheese pumpkins, gourds and others. Probably turban squashes too. It's mind-boggling.

One of these days we'll bite the bullet and do the corn maze. That's more of a commitment than just picking pumpkins, though.