At Wild Rye, the howl of the high desert can be heard on every plate and tasted in every sip. Every dish is intricately tied to the land, the season and the lifestyle of the region, whether foraged from the surroundings, grown by Central Oregon farms, or philosophically connected to the desert.

SAMPLE MENU

COCKTAILS

OREGON TRAIL OLD FASHIONED
Rye whiskey, cherry, hazelnut, cacao and bitters

CHAN-TINI
Portland Potato vodka, Ransom dry vermouth, douglas fir, pickled chanterelle and onion

STRAWBERRY TEQUILA CRUSTA
Reposado tequila, lemon, strawberry, honey with a strawberry powder rim

SHAREABLES

OYSTERS
Huckleberry mignonette, black pepper and lemongrass oil

GRILLED ALBACORE ‘CRUDO’ 
Peaches, saffron chili crisp, puffed wild rice and shiso

SMOKED BEEF CARPACCIO
Pickled mushrooms, crushed truffle, crispy allium, herb salad and black garlic aioli

 

BRULED BRIE
Speck, marionberry jam, almonds and grilled bread

SMALL PLATES

OREGON BAY SHRIMP & ALMOND PEPPER SOUP
Pepper pipérade, crispy garlic

LITTLE GEM ‘WEDGE’
Cascadia blue cheese, bacon, pickled onion, everything bagel spice with Brasada sauce

ROASTED BEETS & SMOKED YOGURT
Stone fruit, lime leaf, basil and pistachio rose rubble

ENTREES

GRILLED ‘BRASADA HOT’ MAITAKE
Braised greens, polenta, hot sauce butter

ALASKAN HALIBUT
Sweet corn, sungold tomato, burnt corn husk oil and curried almonds

GRILLED SMOKED CHICKEN
Eggplant purée, pickled chanterelles, grapes, burnt onion and crispy ash spätzle

JUNIPER BRAISED LAMB SHANK
Rye risotto, late summer vegetables and huckleberries

BEEF TENDERLOIN ‘OSCAR’
Dungeness crab, salt-baked celery root, ramp vinaigrette and tomato Hollandaise

FIFTY DOLLAR BURGER
8oz Angus beef, foie gras, smoked provolone, onion bordelaise, truffle aioli, bone marrow brioche and fries

Chef Karl Holl and Brasada Ranch’s Wild Rye Showcase Regional Flavor

With guests’ high expectations and the intensity of working in a restaurant kitchen, an executive chef’s job can be a high-stress endeavor. Karl Holl, executive chef at Brasada Ranch, a luxury ranch retreat east of Bend in Powell Butte, says he has often turned to nature to decompress.

“My curiosity led me from the kitchen to the woods. I have always used foraging [ingredients] as an escape,” he said.

The chef recalls the days he spent foraging mushrooms for a restaurant in Napa Valley, which highlighted mushrooms in its menus year-round. After working his way through restaurants in Napa, Vail, San Francisco and Portland, Holl moved to Bend with his family in 2022 in search of a new challenge and family-friendly lifestyle.

Holl’s foraging expertise is displayed at Brasada’s new high desert-inspired showpiece, Wild Rye. The former Range Restaurant and Bar has an industrial and rustic aesthetic with wooden ceilings and garage doors that open onto a patio with views of the Cascade Range. While the landscape can appear arid and rough, Holl says Central Oregonians have an abundance of incredible ingredients at their fingertips, including western juniper, wild mushrooms, sagebrush, rye, fiddleheads, spruce tips, ramps, wild strawberries and huckleberries as well as meats like elk, venison, rabbit and buffalo. The result is a cuisine that is bold, bright and intensely flavorful.

“High desert cuisine is both rugged and beautiful, all tied into one,” said Holl, who also describes himself as a farmer and a butcher.

His past culinary endeavors have included a stint with the roving pop-up restaurant Outstanding in the Field—where he cooked at more than 90 farms across the country—and a position as the culinary director for Portland-based Smith Teamaker. Tea continues to be among Holl’s favorite ingredients.

Dishes on the Wild Rye Menu

At Wild Rye, one of the dishes he’s most proud of is the Juniper-Braised Lamb Shank, which tells a story about Brasada Ranch and highlights ingredients found on the property, the site of an old sheep farm. “I like to think that the sheep used to escape the afternoon heat by taking shade under the juniper trees after a morning of foraging the wild rye grass throughout the high desert pastures,” Holl said. Braised with earthy juniper, the lamb is served with summer vegetables and rye berry risotto and topped with sour pickled huckleberries.

Most dishes feature the flavor of fire, whether smoked, grilled, spit-roasted or torched, such as the Brûléed Brie served with crostini, speck and marionberry jam. The menu also nods to cowboy culture (a ranch-cut Tomahawk steak) and the Pacific Northwest. Holl showcases fresh seafood in the Alaskan Halibut with buttermilk, coconut, curried almond and garden herb oil and the Beef Tenderloin ‘Oscar’ with Dungeness crab, asparagus, potatoes and hollandaise sauce. The Fifty Dollar Burger with foie gras and truffle aioli is Central Oregon’s most decadent hamburger. Basque Cheesecake topped with cherry compote is the perfect cap to a memorable meal.

Wild Rye Cocktails

Great care has been taken with the cocktail offerings, courtesy of cocktail creator Scott Baird, who founded the award-winning San Francisco watering hole Trick Dog. Baird and Holl became friends when they lived in San Francisco, and Baird often visits Central Oregon. Like the cuisine, local ingredients are featured along with Oregon-distilled vodkas, gins and whiskeys from the West. Cocktails include the complex Oregon Trail Mix Old Fashioned, paying tribute to the famed wagon route, made with rye whiskey, cherry, hazelnut, cacao and bitters, and the magenta-hued Huckleberry Fix, a refreshing concoction of local vodka, lime, huckleberry and a huckleberry candy sphere.

Personal Touches from Chef Holl

Chef Holl’s innovative culinary program at Brasada Ranch extends beyond Wild Rye. It includes multiple concepts, including Ranch House (a kid-friendly tavern-meets-pizzeria), picnic basket breakfasts delivered to guests of the adults-only Cascade Bungalows, as well as Cascade by the Sea, a play on an East Coast fish shack at the adults-only pool.

At his home in northwest Bend, Holl looks forward to simple meals at home with his wife and 3-year-old daughter, such as burger nights and steak with grilled vegetables. At the resort, rather than being tied to the kitchen, he can be found exploring the property’s 1,800 acres or grilling teriyaki-lacquered mushrooms on the outdoor asado. High desert cuisine, he says, is not defined just by ingredients; it’s a lifestyle. At Wild Rye, diners take in views of strawberry-hued sunsets over the Three Sisters from the patio. Lingering in Adirondack chairs around the campfire after their meal for stargazing, s’mores and a digestif, they experience the high desert at its best.

WILD RYE
16986 SW Brasada Ranch Road, Bend/Powell Butte
866-373-4882 | brasada.com/bend-oregon-dining/wild-rye

Thursday-Sunday 5 p.m.-9 p.m.