The Best Restaurants in Ashland, OR

There are several annual food festivals, the largest of which is Ashland Culinary Festival. Throughout the year, visitors and locals enjoy an amazing array of restaurants serving a wide variety of cuisines and dining experiences. From cozy cafés and bucolic wine tasting rooms to award-winning fine dining destinations, you’ll find endless options for a gastronomic adventure.

This Ashland staple has long been the go-to fine dining place in the city. Featuring contemporary cuisine, Alchemy offers a fresh, modern take on classic bistro and dinner fare, with such menu items as crispy duck salad with marinated nectarines, seared Foie Gras, pan seared copper river salmon, and more. The bar serves the finest selection of whiskeys and craft cocktails, and the restaurant’s impressive wine cellar is personally curated by owner Drew Gibbs, who is also a certified sommelier.

 
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Ashland’s restaurant scene gets truly busy from February to late October when the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is staged. Founded in 1935, this major occasion stages up to 11 plays with around 750 to 850 performances every year.

The festival has a home of its own – a four-acre campus beside Lithia Park and Ashland Plaza. The campus houses the three theaters where the plays are staged, the Allen Elizabeth Theatre, the Angus Bowmer Theatre, and the Thomas Theatre. Before the evening performances, dance, music, circus, and other acts are staged at The Bricks, a central open court that puts the campus’s architectural details together.

 
Other cultural attractions

In addition to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland’s cultural scene is a rich tapestry of performing arts, museums, galleries, and music. Catch a performance of the Dancing People Company, the only professional modern dance group in the region. Have a visual arts feast at the Schneider Museum in Southern Oregon University, or at Ashland Art Center. Join the Ashland Gallery Association’s First Friday Art Walks. Enjoy live music of any genre in one of the restaurants and bars in the city, or at music venues like Live at the Armory and the Butler Bandshell.

The city is a beloved tourist destination, as well as a great college town thanks to Southern Oregon University. This unique combination gives residents of Ashland access to a mix of amenities like beautiful parks and world-class restaurants.

Ashland is home to miles of hiking and biking trails for all skill levels, such as the Ashland Watershed, the Oredson-Todd Woods, and Lithia Park. Serious cyclists will love the challenge of the Bear Creek Greenway and the Cascade Siskiyou Scenic Bikeway.

If water adventures are your thing, go kayaking or white water rafting on the Upper Klamith or Rouge Rivers. Go on a short drive to the Mountain Lakes for a quiet day of fishing, or hike and picnic at Grouse Gap Shelter.

In the winter, Mt. Ashland Ski Areais a skier’s paradise with 23 trails, 200 acres of skiable areas, and snowboard parks. Winter activities here include Nordic and alpine skiing, snowshoeing, snowboarding, and more.

Scour the shops at historic East Main Street, and have a bite at one of the fantastic restaurants in the area. Make sure to check out Lithia Artisans Market, an outdoor artisans market that runs from March to October. And find the freshest farm to market products and homemade goodies at the Rogue Valley Growers Market.

Founded in 1980, Ashland Home Real Estate are experts in Ashland, Oregon real estate. We are proud locals, and we want our clients to experience the best that our beautiful city has to offer.

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