5 Best Nightlife in Central Oregon, Oregon

A long-standing brewery, founded in 1995, BBC (as it is affectionately called by locals) offers around a dozen different types of beers on tap. A park-like outdoor seating area overlooking the Deschutes River makes a fantastic venue for regular live music performances.

Housed in a converted auto repair shop, this experimental brewery has no flagship beer. Instead, the brewmaster, a Deschutes Brewery alum, produces an ever-changing variety of pale ales and other craft brews, all of which are on tap in the lively tasting room. Live entertainment, on-site food carts, and a sprawling patio make this a popular hangout in the summer months.

This revamped outdoor amphitheater offers dozens of concerts throughout the summer season and has room for 8,000 guests. You can pay a premium to take in shows from the two-story VIP pavilion, or stick to the ground level, where you'll find around a dozen food carts and—in the true Bend fashion—a large beer garden.

Pass through the swinging saloon doors into this Old West watering hole, originally built more than a century ago as the Hotel Sisters. Head to the bar, decorated with a mural of cancan dancers, weathered saddles hanging on the wall, and a mounted stuffed buffalo head. The menu remains rooted in ranch favorites but gets updated with vegetarian-friendly offerings. Locals and visitors rub shoulders at regular live music and comedy shows; for a true Wild West experience, show up on a Wednesday to participate in the saloon's weekly Texas Hold'em poker tournament.

Occupying a block on the edge of downtown, Wild Ride's tasting room and outdoor patio bustles late into the evening thanks to a quartet of food carts serving meals until the bartenders stop pouring. As its name suggests, the brewery takes a cue from the locals' adventurous lifestyles and names each beer for various “wild rides”—from motorcycles to skiing to rock climbing. Tours of the brewing facilities are available by appointment.