Beating the heat: hospitality industry does what it can

Central Oregon’s hot weather is affecting the hospitality industry. From fans to air conditioning to lots of water, restaurants, bars and breweries are doing their best to beat the heat.

At GoodLife Brewing, head brewer Tyler West said sometimes the refrigerator comes in handy.

“We do have a giant walk-in cooler. We try to go in there and take a few breaks here and there,” West said Thursday.

“We literally have a chair in our 41-degree walk-in cooler where we go do paperwork,” he said.

Breweries don’t often have air conditioning, and in some areas it’s often 10 degrees warmer than outside.

As far as numbers go, most businesses said they didn’t see a drop in customers, instead just a difference.

That includes Mitch Cole, the owner of Cabin 22, who said, “where normally people are eating at 6 or 7 or 8, it’s 8 to 9 or 10, so we’re here a couple hours later in the evening.”

And more people are choosing to eat inside instead of outside, said Sandee Ellis, a server and bartender at Cascade Lakes Brewing Co.

“During the heat, when it crawls up to about 100 degrees, we get super-busy inside the bar, where everyone wants to be cool, where it’s dark,” she said.

At Worthy Brewing, the bar on the second level is closed because of the heat, said server Drew Askey.

“What’s unique is that normally this time of year, we would having everyone just want to flood the patio, and we haven’t seen that as much,” he said.

So in an area where the outdoors rules, sometimes the inside isn’t so bad either.