Summer days in Bend don’t need an ambitious itinerary—they just need a few great stops in the right order. Start with a nourishing breakfast, spend the afternoon beside an alpine lake and finish the day with cocktails overlooking the Deschutes. It’s the kind of day that captures what locals love most about summer in Central Oregon: good food, time outside and an easy pace that invites you to linger.
Here’s how to spend a full day eating your way through Bend and beyond.
Breakfast: Restore and Refuel at Fix & Repeat
The season spills from the front doors at Fix & Repeat, a vegan cafe that throws open its garage-door walls the moment the weather allows. Morning light warms the patio tables at this restaurant along Arizona Avenue in a scene that feels, for all its naturalness, miraculous. Co-owner Leila Carter has compared the café to the “Cheers” of smoothie bars—and she’d know. Carter is often in the shop before it opens, juicing and prepping alongside a staff that, in many cases, has been part of the team since the beginning. She and co-owner Kristen O’Neill met while living on Maui and, coincidentally, moved to Bend on the same day. They purchased the café in January 2020 and have remained committed to its founding mission: helping people restore their bodies with plant-based food so they can get back out and do what they love. Hike. Bike. Float the Deschutes. Nourish. Repeat.
Try the electric-cyan Blue Breeze smoothie where coconut milk meets fresh-squeezed orange juice, pineapple, mango and lemon with a hint of maple syrup, vanilla protein and blue spirulina. The glowing color resembles a swatch of the morning sky and comes courtesy of the spirulina—a blue-green algae superfood.
The Acai bowl is dense, blended with house made peanut butter, almond milk, banana, vanilla protein powder and, for an Oregon touch, marionberries. This base is topped with goji granola—also made in house—plus banana, berries, coconut and cacao nibs.
Lunch: Lakeside Dining at The Boathouse at Suttle Lodge
Summer at The Boathouse is akin to refined summer camp. Open seasonally along Suttle Lake, the spot has everything someone could ask for in a lakeside eatery, which is probably why you’ll find loads of hikers, swimmers, paddle boarders and road-trippers filling the tables inside and out. Sit dockside and you’ll see boats bobbing, dogs drying off in the sun after a swim, and birdsong drifting through the trees, all within a lunch break.
The Boathouse offers cuisine that may seem humble with its counter service and menu board, but surprises with invention once the plates land on their royal blue serving trays. The Famous Fish Sandwich is a potato chip-crusted trout slice of heaven. It even earned national attention after appearing on Hulu’s “Eater’s Guide to the World.” This is not the kind of trout-by-the-lake situation that The Parent Trap’s Hallie and Annie tried to pawn off onto Meredith Blake during their camping trip. The full-length fried fish extends well beyond the sesame-dense bun sandwiching it—which is great news because the trout is delicious. Also in the sandwich are the classic LPO (lettuce, pickle, onion) fixings, an acidic tartar dressing called Fish Trap Sauce and a wedge of lemon on the side.
If in need of some veg, the cold noodle salad comes with rice noodles, tahini, pickled onion and cucumber, shredded carrot, jalapeno, herbs and a chili crunch sauce that adds punch and texture to the dish. It pairs quite perfectly with the specialty Lawn Margarita, which is poured over a full mound of nugget ice.
Afternoon: Bend Elks Baseball at Vince Genna Stadium
Carrying a hot dog up stadium bleachers is a distinct summer joy. As long as the Bend Elks are playing at home, it is the perfect occasion to snag one for $5. These are the long days Bendites crave during winter’s 4 p.m. sunsets.
At Vince Genna Stadium, the menu is as old school as the venue itself, which dates to the ‘40s: hot dogs with choose-your-own toppings, pretzels with cheese sauce, hamburgers, Cracker Jacks and warm peanuts. For drinks, the lineup includes Bend brews, Cascade Lakes’ Left Field Lager and Deschutes Anytime Lemonade Shandy, plus Corvallis-made 2 Towns Cider and Craftwell Cocktails in flavors like hibiscus lemonade. There’s something for fans to holler about when stadium entertainers sprint past the stands with a sign reading “CHEER FOR CHEAP BEER.” Just remember to get your drinks before the 7th inning when beer sales wrap up.
If the main queues have you missing too much of the action, the BBQ Deck near third base usually offers a swifter route to the ordering counter. A full hot dog toppings bar stands by with onions, pickles and a specialty Dijon mustard. Between innings, the ball game stays alive with band music—a plucking banjo, brassy calls of a trombone and the like—while quick field competitions between ticket holders keep things moving. Local tips: The Elks take the field right on time, so arrive early if you want to make first pitch. Bring a baseball cap, too. The setting sun makes for an idyllic golden hour, but it aims directly into the stands. And exercise caution in the parking lot—foul balls have a notorious habit of finding windshields.
Evening: Cocktails Along the Deschutes at Currents
Currents at Riverhouse Lodge epitomizes everything Bend has to offer when it comes to closing the day out right. Few Bend patios sit as close to the Deschutes River as Currents. The location hangs over the riverbank, close enough to hear sounds of the river above the clinking glasses, table talk and live music.
Firepits line the deck if you want to settle in, and s’more kits are available for a sweet treat to extend sundown. Walk the footbridge off the patio for a closer look at the rushing water and, if you time it right, you’ll catch anglers casting in the Deschutes while the sky warms into pinks and golds behind them. The passageways leading to the bridge, and the bridge itself, are lined with murals by local Bend artist Janessa Rose, whose team spent two months completing the work. Painted in the same pinks, yellows, blues and golds of the scene around it, the works depict the vitality of the Deschutes corridor with its eagles, otters, fish, waterfalls, wildflowers and mountains.
The Currents bar menu focuses on bright, seasonal flavors. Its Spicy Hibiscus Margarita uses spicy bitters and a house made citrus stock with a hibiscus-infused tequila. The Cherry Mezcal Mule is crisp and smokey, and made for nights when the heat sticks around—adding fruity Maraschino liqueur to a classic cocktail for a bit of dog day nostalgia.
Throughout Central Oregon, the high-spirited environment is just as essential to a summer dining experience as the cuisine. These long, sun-drenched days define the meal—from smoothies and grain bowls to beer and hot dogs, some things simply taste better outside.
