If you are visiting Ashland for the first time or are even
a local Southern Oregonian going for a visit, deciding what to do, where to
stay and where to eat can be quite overwhelming. There are so many great restaurants and entertainment
venues to enjoy there is never enough time to do it all! So, let
me tell you how my husband and I saved a little money when we decided to have
our wedding anniversary weekend in Ashland.
Of course staying downtown is ideal so that you can
walk to most of your destinations. There
are two places that we like to stay when we stay in Downtown Ashland. If you like a quaint boutique hotel and want
to really save some money the Columbia Hotel is perfect. They have really nicely decorated rooms with
shared bathrooms for a very reasonable price or if you want your own bath it’s
still well-priced. I would suggest
getting the room with the private bath; it’s a little bit of a walk to the
bathrooms in the middle of the night after you’ve been out partaking in Ashland
nightlife.
The other place we like to stay is the Ashland SpringsHotel. To some it may seem a little
‘fancy’ and it is really quiet in there, but we’ve stayed there on three
different occasions and have enjoyed it every time. The staff is really nice, the rooms are clean
and cozy and you cannot hear a thing through the walls. When I called to make reservations I asked if
they offered any discounts since we are local, we live in Medford, and they did
offer me a 10% discount. Other perks: They have Larks, a great restaurant, downstairs and they even give you a small discount
since you are staying at the hotel, plus, they have a great continental
breakfast with scratch made muffins that are to die for. Another advantage is you get a FREE steam a day at
Waterstone Spa, that is across the street.
Of course, there are a lot of other packages that you can choose from. If you
want to have a romantic getaway, they will put champagne and chocolate in
your room and you can book with Waterstone Spa for massages, or whatever may strike
your fancy. This time we decided to
forgo the package and we decided to kind of build our own package.
To save at Waterstone Spa I signed up for their monthly
email newsletter. It has lots of great specials every month. We got a foot scrub and a Waterstone
Vino-Therapy massage for a very reasonable price and it came with a
complimentary glass of sparkling wine. It was two
hours of bliss worth every penny.
For our first night there we had dinner at Smithfield’s,
we were pretty excited because we had only been there for cocktails on
one occasion. It's a really cool, rustic place with a chalkboard wall describing the cuts of meat, which is perfect since their specialty is nose to tail cooking. For a starter we ordered an arugula
and golden beet salad with goat cheese beignet's and oh, my, were they tasty,
the beignet's just melted in your mouth and the arugula and beets were a
perfect compliment. For dinner I decided on the rib eye special on horseradish
mashed potatoes, topped with bleu cheese butter and onion rings and my husband
decided on fried oysters on a bed of arugula with sambal aioli. Both dishes
were phenomenal! To drink, I had the house cocktail "SF" Red Lemonade
made with house made strawberry gin, it was really tasty, my husband had a
beer. Altogether the meal was pretty great and we look forward to going back,
especially for that amazing steak! If
you go
during the week they have ‘Happy Hour & a Half’ Tuesday-Thursday & Sunday 830-10pm.
We still had time for a cocktail after Smithfields's
so we went over to Harvey’s Place which is conveniently located at the bottom
of the pathway that takes you to Angus Bowmer Theatre of The Oregon Shakespeare
Festival. Harvey’s has a great little
cocktail list which includes the classics such as a French 75, which was not only delicious but beautiful and my husband had another local
brew.
Plus, they have an encore menu perfect
to stop in for, after you catch a show at Shakespeare.
After our cocktail at Harvey’s we headed up to see our
pre-season showing of ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ at The Shakespeare
Festival. This was a lively and fun
modern rendition of one of my favorite plays.
You will not be wasting your time if you go see it. The best way to get deals to see plays at The
Shakespeare Festival is to sign up for their email list. We got our tickets for a steal because of an
email we received offering us pre-season specials. They also offer tickets for family days to
take the kids with special pre-show family day prologues that highlight key
themes and elements of the play you will see in a fun, interactive environment
appropriate for all ages. Plus, on
Thursdays they send out email’s offering last minute deals on plays that have
seats left. A great idea to be on their
email list especially if you are local!
On Saturday we opted out of the continental breakfast
at our hotel and went to one of our favorite breakfast/brunch spots in Southern
Oregon, Morning Glory. The wait is so
worth the delectable meal you receive when your order comes. We each had a cocktail, my husband opted for
the peach-strawberry mimosa and I had the grapefruit mimosa, yes they were
tasty. For our meal I had the king crab omelet,
oh so yummy and full of king crab, and hubby had the chicken fried steak which was huge and topped
with a creamy house made sausage gravy and he said was one of the best he’s
had.
We decided we needed to walk off our decadent breakfast so we
took a walk around Downtown Ashland perusing antique shops, a couple of record
stores and trinket shops and even stopped into Ashland Outdoor Store (looking
for rock climbing gear) and Rogue Valley Runners to drool over the latest
running shoes, followed by our massages at Waterstone Spa.
After getting fully
refreshed, we got ready for our evening out.
We couldn’t quite make a decision on where we would like to eat so we
decided to go everywhere. Downtown Ashland
is the perfect place to have a “pub” stroll.
We started out at Kobe
because we wanted sushi. They have a
great cocktail menu and their happy hour is phenomenal. The bar menu is available every night at the
sushi bar & bar, under the covered patio from 5-6pm and in the whole
restaurant from 9-close. We had a couple
of rolls which were AMAZING and some of their wonderful cocktails and then
headed upstairs to Liquid Assets Wine Bar.
Now, you might be
thrown off when you walk up because it looks like an art gallery and in a way you
would be right because they do display a lot of art but it is also a fabulous
wine bar, a comfy, cozy wine bar. Not
only do they have a seemingly endless wine list, but also wonderful craft
cocktails, a whimsical and enticing menu and they have Happy Hour every day from
3-5pm. That night they had a cocktail special called the Moonwalk, it had fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, a grapefruit & pink pepper shrub, rose water and sparkling wine. It was delectable plus, since we sat at the bar you
we were able to have an uplifting conversation with a sweet and boisterous bartender
Lucy. We had such a great time we almost
stayed but decided to move on.
Next, we went to Carpe
Noctem Bar inside of Loft Brasserie.
They have great, imaginative craft cocktails and a tasty bar menu from
430pm-close. If you do feel like having
dinner at Loft it is a beautiful, intimate spot and their menu is very inviting. My husband and I crave their Oysters
Rockefeller but they don’t always have them on the menu, since the menu does
change according to season, so check Facebook or their website. No matter, I’m sure you will enjoy every bite
you have as we always have.
Finally, we ended at
Brickroom. Brickroom hasn’t been open
long but they have quickly become one of our favorite late night spots when we
get out to Ashland. The atmosphere is lively,
the décor is gorgeous and the bartenders are topnotch. If you order from the drink menu you will
surely be delighted, but if you happen to get served by the head bartender Zack
you will be in for a treat. He is not
only very attentive and friendly but if you ask him if he has anything up his
sleeve he will usually have something fun and unique to delight your taste buds. That night he made me a lemon meringue
martini, complete with the fluffy meringue and it was wonderfully memorable. Not
only do they have great cocktails but they also have a nice menu of
mouthwatering and intriguing food items and on occasion they have live music. They
don’t currently offer happy hour but they do serve breakfast, lunch and dinner
and offer craft coffee drinks made with local Noble Coffee. It was a great ending to a great night!
To finish off our
weekend we went to Sunday brunch at Brothers’ Restaurant right on the Ashland Plaza.
If you are there on the weekend you will most likely have to wait a little but
you will not be disappointed. Their food
is home cooking taken up a notch. I get
the French dip every time I go because I can’t bring myself to try anything
else, I love it so much. My husband has
had various scrambles and sandwiches and has enjoyed them all. And their bloody Mary is so yummy and the
perfect complement to Sunday morning brunch after a Saturday night out!
Of course there are so
many other places to eat & play at in Ashland, but there will always be other posts! If you have been to Ashland, what are some of your favorite spots to hit. We always love suggestions of new places to go!
