Foo Foo Drinks Rock!

John and I joined some new friends of ours for a drink down at the Bend Distillery Martini Bar the other night. It was great fun.

I'm a huge supporter of local food and products, I think it's what makes Bend such an up and coming "right on" town. By "right on" I mean a place where all the cool kids have lived or plan to someday and where all the people with money like to buy their second homes. I grew up in Santa Cruz, it's a "right on" town, so much so that John and I could never afford to buy a house there now. When ever I tell anyone I grew up in Santa Cruz they usually respond with, "right on, that's a pretty cool place." That's where the "right on" adjective came from. Bend is now producing a similar response from folks.

Bend is lucky to have a local distillery that makes some pretty tasty liquor. Their tasting room and martini bar downtown is usually pretty crowded but on the early Tuesday evening that we were there it had more the feel of a mellow, mood-lit coffee house than a bar. There were a couple sofas, lots of candles and some awesome local artwork on the walls. Of course it still had the nasty, old booze smell of a bar when we walked in but once we saw the drink menu we knew we were in for a treat. They had a bunch of traditional martinis but they also had a ton of foo foo martinis dressed up with fruit juice, cream, espresso and garnishes.

I ordered the Crater Colada. It was Crater Lake Vodka, coconut cream, pineapple juice and orange juice served in a martini glass rimmed with toasted coconut. Delicious. Other drinks ordered were a Dreamsicle, a Shanghai Citrus (something or other), and a Lime Ricky (virgin drink for the driver). All the drinks were fabulous. The Dreamsicle was mango infused vodka, mango puree and cream, again served in a martini glass. The freshness of the mango was perfect with the richness of the cream and a beautiful change from the traditional orange creamsicle.

Drinks were all between $6 and $8. Pretty normal pricing for foo foo drinks I suppose, but well worth it. The bartendress was very informative and attentive, friendly too. We'll be back there as soon as our bank account recovers...

You can check out the Bend booze and get some cool recipes at bendistillery.com