We’re Paige and Mason. The Bend Banner is our way of keeping tabs on this wild, beautiful place we call home. To the mornings that start with coffee and mountain air, the trails that somehow always lead to a brewery, and the kind of small-town stories that remind you why you chose to live here in the first place.

Food For Community

If you've lived in Bend more than a summer or two, you know the drill. The sky turns orange, the air smells like campfire whether you want it to or not, and somewhere out past town, crews are working around the clock to keep it from getting worse. This year is no different.

It's the kind of summer that could make a person feel small and helpless. Instead, Bend is doing what Bend does. It's cooking.

I've known Jackson Higdon for a while now, and if you've spent any time around him, you know he's the real deal. Grew up in Bend, spent six years as Executive Chef at Crux, then in 2020 he did something a lot of people talk about and never actually do: he quit the safe path and started his own thing.

He called it Luckey's Woodsman, after his grandfather Curtis, who ran a restaurant by the same name back in Springfield in 1956. That place closed down in the seventies, long before Jackson was born, but the name stuck with him. When he finally built something of his own, he picked it back up. Same name, new chapter, same idea underneath it: feed people well, and feed them like you mean it.

That's exactly what's happening right now. Jackson just relaunched the Hold the Line Fund at Luckey's Woodsman, offering free meals to firefighters, evacuees, and anyone else this fire season has knocked sideways. Doesn't matter if you're at the Bend location or the one in Sisters, closer to where a lot of this is happening. Show up, and there's a plate for you.

Nobody writes headlines about a plate of food handed to a tired firefighter at ten at night. But it's the thing that actually holds a town together when the summer turns hard. Jackson's grandfather built a restaurant on the idea of feeding people well. Sixty years later, his grandson is doing the same thing, at exactly the moment his town needs it most.

If you want to help, Luckey's Woodsman is taking donations for the Hold the Line Fund. Or just go grab a bite and say thanks yourself.

Local Business Sits Atop The West Coast

I've taken my kids there on a rainy Saturday. I've snuck away to hit balls on my own. I've even rounded up a group of guys for a night that had way more laughing than golfing. X-Golf Bend works for all three, and that's rare.

If you haven't been, it's an indoor golf simulator spot, but calling it that undersells the place. It's part sports bar, part hangout, part place-to-actually-improve-your-swing. My kids don't care about the golf part. They just want to pick the beach course and act like they're in Hawaii.

The story behind it is a good one. Owner Steve Lobis spent his career in the packaging industry before retiring. His son Keith graduated from Gonzaga with a mechanical engineering degree, an MBA from Oregon State, and a golf swing good enough to play for the Bulldogs. Father and son were both looking for a project to tackle together. They found X-Golf in Vancouver, WA, and figured Bend needed one too.
I asked Steve a few questions about how it's gone.

How'd you get into this business?
"We are both avid golfers. Keith discovered X-Golf in Vancouver, WA, and we started the process of bringing it to Bend."
Where do customers come from today?
Social media has been their fastest growth channel. But Steve says the real goal is just making sure people know they're there, and that they're more than an indoor golf spot. Golfers come for the golf. Everyone else comes to hang out.
What's worked better than expected?
Sponsoring the Bend Bulletin sweepstakes. Steve said it brought in a wave of new customers and leads he wasn't expecting.
A real number you're comfortable sharing?
This past winter, X-Golf Bend was the top X-Golf franchise west of the Mississippi. Steve credits it to how supportive this community has been.
Advice for someone starting a business here?
Know your city requirements and fees before you start. Steve said the Chamber was a big help getting through the permitting process.

Thanks to Steve and Keith for building something this town clearly needed, and for teaming up with a little local newsletter like ours. If you haven't been to X-Golf yet, go. Bring the kids, bring your buddies, or just go by yourself and pretend you're playing Pebble Beach.

This Week’s Conditions
☀️ Sunrise: 5:49 am
🌅 Sunset: 8:33 pm
High Temp: 90°F
Local Golf Course of the Week: Lost Tracks

🐾Bend’s Best Good Boys & Good Girls 🐾

🐶 Angel – 4 years, Mix
She's blind from a congenital eye issue and may not hear well either, but she gets around by nose and has already picked up more than anyone expected. She needs a calm house where the couch stays put, and the routine doesn't change much.

🐱 Rocket – 3 Years - Hound Mix
He's smart and full of energy, so he does best with real daily exercise, a job to do, and maybe some scent work to burn off that hound brain. He's lived with kids, dogs, and cats.

🐱 King – 1 year - Bulldog Mix
King showed up as a stray and loves to be pet and loved on. A one-story house is better, as he struggles to do stairs.