The first thing that grabs you is the case of beef—behind the glass, rows of thick, marbled scarlet-and-white cuts lie waiting. A few steps beyond, a phalanx of cooks efficiently introduce these cuts to flame, with Chef John Gorham, who at 6-foot-3, stands head and shoulders above his team. Beyond that, his wife and business partner, Renee Gorham, orchestrates a swirl of cocktails, music and conviviality, the recipe behind Rancher Butcher Chef’s success.
Achievements are nothing new for Gorham, a six-time James Beard Award-nominated chef whose string of Portland restaurants drew wide acclaim, including Toro Bravo, Tasty n Alder, Tasty n Sons, Plaza Del Toro, Mediterranean Exploration Company and Shalom Y’all. That chapter is behind the Gorhams, since they moved to Redmond in 2020 and launched their ranch-to-table dining experience in NorthWest Crossing in August 2022 with partner manager Garrett Peck and Will von Schlegell, whose family owns 7-Mile Creek Ranch in Fort Klamath. The restaurant’s beef comes from von Schlegell’s ranch and others in the Country Natural Beef Cooperative, an organization that focuses on regenerative practices and natural cattle grazing.
All that care, from the raising of happy, healthy cows across millions of acres, to Gorham’s diverse culinary inspiration anchored in Spain, is tangible in each dish. The quality and flavor extend into the very marrow of the beef bones that Gorham serves, split lengthwise and grilled—6-inch troughs of unctuous goodness served with onion marmalade, salsa verde and foie gras toast. Gorham shows that the beef is so good, sometimes it’s best not to cook it at all, but instead chop it by hand for tartare, topped with a raw egg yolk and served with crunchy, grilled miche bread.
A Spanish and ranching theme extends to its cocktails, too. The Prescribed Burn is a concoction of Bulleit bourbon, amaro, smoked Cinzano vermouth and bitters. The La Vida Verde blends Vida mezcal, Lillet Blanc, and an herbal liqueur with fennel, lime and soda.
The next project for the team behind Rancher Butcher Chef is a tapas-inspired Bar RBC, slated to open this spring, in the former Dogwood Cocktail Cabin on downtown Bend’s Minnesota Avenue. The new endeavor will draw on Gorham’s love affair with Spanish cuisine, the driving force behind the former Toro Bravo, combined with some of the signature dishes of Rancher Butcher Chef. Two of the dishes from the restaurant will appear at Bar RBC: the txuleton, an enormous, 64-ounce porterhouse steak—all tenderness on a T-shaped bone, and potatoes bravas, with their crispy, fried edges that cling to a viscous sauce of onion, garlic, chili, tomato and white wine.
“A dish that I love that we had at Toro—it was part of another dish, but I’m going to serve it by itself — is pisto Manchego, which is Spain’s ratatouille, and Gildas, which is a big deal in Spain. It’s a skewer with anchovies, olives and pipparas (spicy-sweet Basque) peppers,” said John Gorham.
The wines will all be from Spain, along with a large list of sherries, vermouths and sherry-driven cocktails.
Gorham first fell for Spanish cuisine on a trip to Barcelona nearly two decades ago. He returns to Spain every year as a guest chef on intimate, off-the-beaten-path food tours, from farms and ranches to wineries, festivals and more.
“We’ve harvested mussels, oysters, clams and grapes,” he said. “We went to the rice paddies of Valencia Bomba rice (known as the finest rice for paella), into little villages and had three-star Michelin chefs come out and cook different paellas for us.”
During one of the tours, he swam with bluefin tuna, Renee Gorham added, and although he lost his wedding ring in the process, it was a fantastic experience for him. Each visit serves to inspire him further, she said. He dreams of living in Spain one day, but until then, he’s excited to see the growth and evolution of Bend’s culinary scene.
“Bend is very similar to what I saw in Portland in ‘07, being ripe to be a food town,” he said. “I think that Bend is going to become that, I think that it’s going to become a food city.”
Rancher Butcher Chef
2838 NW Crossing Drive Suite 120, Bend | 541-797-7900
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