Restaurants in McMinnville

In an effort to find a healthy alternative to fast food without sacrificing speediness, the creators of The Pita Pit began assembling their signature sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night snacks. At each location, thin, Lebanese-style pitas encircle lean, grilled meats and fresh veggies. Sandwich selections span the spectrum from gyro meat and falafel to turkey and prime rib. The staff empowers customers to make healthy choices by displaying nutrition information for each bread, meat, and post-meal toothpick and corralling a selection of healthy sandwiches, which dining companions can wash down with fruit smoothies.

For 60 years, Wooden Nickel Pub & Eatery has served up hearty eats in a wood-paneled bar with games, live music, and the familiar ambience of a hometown hangout. The pub's cooks smoke, cure, and brine meats in-house, sandwiching them within breads baked on-site. In addition to slow-smoked prime rib, German sausages, and sizzling fried chicken, they simmer pots of jambalaya or shrimp and grits. Diners can find the same savory, homestyle food at a second location in Sublimity.

Having carved out its own elegantly understated space inside the Red Lion Hotel, The Willamette Valley Grill opens daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hormone- and antibiotic-free steak headlines an interactive menu that invites diners to pair premium hunks of beef with creative seasonings that incorporate black-peppercorn demi-glaces or coffee rubs. Behind the upscale menu, however, sits an unsung hero: a steak-house broiler that heats up to 1,800 degrees, effectively sealing in any juices or facts about Area 51 that would otherwise be blurted by overly candid cuts. After dining and sipping on a range of Pacific Northwest wines, guests can trade the restaurant's tasteful ambiance for the colorful hues of an adjacent lounge. There, flat-screen TVs flicker around a bar and live music floods the dance floor every weekend.

A pink ‘59 Cadillac flips on its headlights and a waiter strides to the window. “What’ll it be, Mac?” This was the golden age of carhops, when root beer cost a nickel and Roy Allen and Frank Wright—A&W themselves—were in the midst of expanding what was once a simple root-beer stand into an international chain. Today, A&W continues to slake thirsts with their signature root-beer floats, accompanied by an expanded menu of classic American foodstuffs to inspire both hunger and nostalgia for the sock-hopping, roller-skating days of last week. Now, icy treats share space with hot dogs made from American beef, fried cheese curds of creamy Wisconsin white cheddar, chicken strips, and single and double burgers.

Considering its name, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Bierhaus has a lengthy brew selection. Thirty-two different varieties fill its shelves, from imports to select craft beers to American lagers. Owners Ben Rash and Ryan Gengler modeled their business after a German beer hall, although their food skews a little more American: cooks grill burgers, smoke meats in-house, and fry wings to pair with frosty beverages.

Since 1846, the Miller family tended to herds of cattle in East Macleay, on the fertile plains of the Willamette Valley. Today Dan and Jerry Miller continue their family's legacy—though cattle no longer graze the fields, the pair still operates the ranch themselves along with their restaurant, Macleay Country Inn. Their specialties arrive on tin plates alongside baked potatoes and knives with wooden handles worn smooth. Fireplaces and paintings of forested scenery surround the solid-wood dining sets, which shine slightly under amber lights hanging from rough-hewn rafters. The restaurant hosts Monday-night bingo, sponsored by the Silverton Elk's Lodge, along with live music on select nights in its onsite pub.