News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Pleiades in the FivePine Campus is undergoing some changes starting this week in what co-owner Tate Metcalf describes as a "rebooting" of the restaurant.
Greg Unruh, who co-founded the acclaimed Cork restaurant in Bend, is coming on board as interim chef.
"He and I worked together at the Athletic Club of Bend when he was at Scanlon's, then he and Karen Hill started Cork," Metcalf said.
Unruh will preside over some changes - some gradual and some more immediate - inaugurated as the owners take a more active role in the restaurant. Pleiades is owned by Metcalf and his wife Aimee; Phil and Susan Arends; Bill and Zoe Willitts; Ken and Janice Yopp; and Chip and Robin Dickinson.
"We feel the need to focus on our strengths, and as an ownership group we felt we needed to take a slightly different direction," Metcalf said.
Metcalf identifies the strengths of the restaurant in its dinner crowd and its catering for the FivePine Conference Center.
One change will be to better utilize the bar area, and perhaps separate it from the restaurant a little bit.
"It's such a high-quality bar, but right now we don't have a bar menu or a happy hour," Metcalf said. "That's something we hear about constantly and that's easy to implement."
Some prices will likely change. Metcalf said that dinner prices don't seem to deter diners, based on comment cards provided by the restaurant.
"That was my expectation, but, looking at the comment cards, no," Metcalf said. But as owners we definitely want a more mid-range, family-friendly menu."
Metcalf thinks Unruh can walk the fine line between friendly pricing and maintaining a fine dining experience.
"He knows how to throw that mid-priced pasta dish in there and still have that $30 steak and lobster in there," Metcalf said.
Metcalf hopes to strengthen the link between the restaurant and Sisters Athletic Club and to attract locals on a more regular basis.
"We want people to frequent it more often than just on their birthday or anniversary," he said.
The restaurant will probably eliminate lunch, based on seasonality, and Metcalf mused that there may be a name change down the line.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)