For twenty years, the shortest sentence in Bend went like this: if you wanted a night out, you drove downtown. That sentence is getting longer. Between Century Drive and Galveston Avenue, a cluster of new food, drink, and gathering spaces is opening within a few blocks of each other this summer, and the anchor tenant is a 7,000-square-foot food truck destination behind a ski shop that has been here since 1976.
If you live on the west side, you already know the construction fencing. Here is what is behind it, who is running it, and why the corridor is starting to feel less like a commute route to Mt. Bachelor and more like a place people actually stop.
The Anchor: Base Camp, Behind Powder House
Base Camp sits directly behind Powder House Ski & Patio at 311 SW Century Drive, on the corner of Century and Simpson. Todd and Shanda McGee, who have owned Powder House for roughly 25 years, spent five or six years planning this second phase, and their son Hayden will run the new venue as general manager.
The specs are worth pinning down, because "food truck lot" undersells what is going in:
- Building: 7,000 square feet, two stories, timber structure with 40-foot ceilings and a 50-foot belly bar
- Outdoor space: 5,000 square feet, plus a 1,000-square-foot covered and heated patio
- Bar: 36 taps, full liquor, cocktails
- Doors: Seven roll-up garage doors and floor-to-ceiling windows, full heating and AC so the space works in January as well as August
- Second floor: Wraparound deck, pool tables, shuffleboard, darts
- Screen: An 18-foot projector for Pacific Northwest sports and events
- Parking: 42 new spaces on top of the existing Powder House lot, bringing the combined complex to more than 100
The rooftop garden sits atop repurposed shipping containers. Ten fireplaces and heated benches are scattered through the outdoor space, along with an outdoor stage and a dog-friendly exterior area. The mid-July 2026 opening target is the latest in a construction timeline that has slipped a few times, most recently reported by The Source on July 1.
How the Trucks Got Picked
The McGees fielded more than 60 applicants for ten truck slots. Their screening method was unusual enough to say out loud: finalists cooked for the Powder House staff, a group of more than 30 people ranging in age from 20 to 65, and everyone had to like the food. Todd McGee's framing to The Source was that the trucks needed to make scratch food and scratch sauces, not repurpose deep-fryer output.
The lineup as reported so far:
- Luckey's Woodsman Trailside Kitchen, rustic outdoor-inspired fare (already a familiar name at the existing Powder House lot on weekends)
- Jazzy Joe Coffee Co., specialty coffee, with a second Jazzy Joe kiosk inside the main building carrying sandwiches, homemade ice cream, and cookies
- Let's Roll Sushi, an interior kiosk focused on higher-end selections
Six more trucks fill out the ten to twelve slots reported across coverage (Central Oregon Daily counted twelve in May; The Source counted ten in July, suggesting the count firmed up during buildout). The remaining cuisines have not been publicly named.
"We took thousands of pictures. We talked to the owners, the vendors, and the customers, and we asked them what they would keep the same and what they would change." That is Todd McGee describing five years of visiting food-truck pods on family road trips before designing this one.
Two Blocks North, On Galveston
Base Camp is not happening in isolation. About a mile and a half away, RSM Investments is building Galveston Supply, a 12,000-square-foot, two-story commercial building at 1009 NW Galveston Avenue on the former Boss Rambler taproom site. The design, by 10 Over Studio Architects, will hold three restaurant spaces on the ground floor, second-story office, a second-story terrace, and an outdoor plaza.
The same developer is renovating the adjoining property at 1005 NW Galveston, the building locals have long called the Bakery Building, to add dining capacity and offices. Coverage in Cascade Business News frames Base Camp and Galveston Supply as twin projects. That framing is the story: two developments of real scale, built by unrelated owners, aiming at the same underserved corridor within the same construction season.
The Rest of the Corridor Is Filling In Too
Once you start looking, Century Drive and Galveston Avenue are stacking up:
Haven Bagels and Coffee confirmed a second location on Century Drive, between OSU-Cascades and the Terava Apartments. The first Haven opened in August 2024 in the Reed South development on Bend's south side; the Century Drive shop puts a bagel-and-espresso option directly on the route between campus and Base Camp.
Powder Hound Doughnuts, run by Match and Whitney Elliott, is targeting a March 2026 opening at 1366 NW Galveston Avenue in the former Bo's building. Traditional donuts and coffee, family-owned and operated.
Zoom out to the county numbers and the pattern is easier to explain. Deschutes County went from one food-truck pod in 2013 to roughly 30 countywide by 2025, according to figures the county spokesperson provided to The Bulletin. Bend held about a dozen of those pods before Base Camp broke ground. What is different about this cluster is not that Bend has another pod, it is that a pod, a three-restaurant building, a bagel shop, and a donut shop are all opening inside a walkable stretch that used to be a drive-through zone on the way to the mountain.
What This Actually Changes About A Weekend
For a west-side resident, the practical shift is small but real. Saturday morning used to mean either the Old Mill for coffee and a river walk, or downtown for breakfast and browsing. Starting this summer, a version of that morning fits inside a six-block radius on the west side: Haven for a bagel and coffee near OSU-Cascades, Powder House for gear rental or repair, Base Camp for lunch and a beer on the heated patio, and Galveston Supply's tenants (once announced) rounding out dinner options a mile north.
A few things worth watching as Base Camp opens:
- Parking pressure. The 42 new spaces are a lot, but a 200-plus-seat taphouse with a 10-truck lot draws bigger crowds than the existing Powder House traffic. Century Drive on a Saturday in August is going to test that number.
- Cross-season demand. The heated patio, roll-up doors, and interior seating are engineered for winter use. Base Camp is the first west-side venue near Mt. Bachelor built explicitly to catch skiers coming off the mountain in December, not just cyclists in July.
- OSU-Cascades adjacency. The campus is a five-minute walk. Haven, Base Camp, and Galveston Supply are all within a student's dinner radius, which changes the demand curve for the entire corridor once fall term starts.
- Sequencing. Base Camp opens mid-July. Galveston Supply is still in construction, and Powder Hound and Haven's Century Drive location have their own timelines. The corridor will not feel finished until late 2026 at the earliest.
If you have driven Century Drive on a Friday afternoon in the last year and noticed the timber going up behind Powder House, that is the shape of the change. Base Camp is the biggest single piece. It is not the whole story.
At Julie Reber, we watch these corridor shifts closely because they change the feel of the neighborhoods on either side of them. If you own a home on the west side and want to talk through what a busier Century Drive and a rebuilt Galveston Avenue mean for your block, or if you are planning a move within Bend and want a read on where the next quiet street becomes the next favorite one, schedule a free consultation and we will walk through it together.
