- Today we're back in the town of Sisters, Oregon.

There's so much we wanna share with you about this beautiful Central Oregon town.

Today, we'll visit a Swedish-inspired coffee shop, a ranch resort with breathtaking scenery, Sisters Bakery production facility, and a Mexican restaurant with its own serious, unique flavors.

And the whole family's there working in it.

Sisters, Oregon, what a place, let's go.

(upbeat music) Funding for "All Across Oregon" was provided in part by John A Warekois, CPA, Travel Curry Coast, Travel Southern Oregon, Oregon's Adventure Coast, F.V.

Martin Trucking Company, and Travel Southern Oregon Coast.

So here we are, back in this delightful, alluring, and charming town of Sisters.

First stop, Fika Coffee House.

Now the Swedish word Fika, pronounced Fika, means to have coffee or a coffee break.

However, Fika is more than just a coffee break.

It's a cultural tradition that involves taking time out of the day to socialize and relax with family, friends, and colleagues.

Usually with a hot drink and a snack.

It's sad, but it's true.

In our American culture, a coffee break usually just means grabbing a cup of coffee and bringing it back to the desk while we continue to work.

In fact, often the break part is skipped.

Another thing though with Fika is you eat something, things like cardamon muffins, Kladdkaka, which is Swedish sticky chocolate, saffron buns with almond filling, pear, almond, and cardamon cake.

And wouldn't you agree that these are very different kinds of sweets than we're used to?

And here it is, Renee, owner of Fika Coffee, is carrying on this tradition right here in Sisters.

Okay, so here we are at Fika Coffee House.

I want you to meet Renee, the owner and operator of this cool little gem in Sisters.

We got competition here.

- Hi Vinny, welcome.

- She's a popular person.

Hello Renee.

- Thanks for coming in.

Welcome to Fika.

- What a cute place.

Fika, now there's a name that you don't hear for a coffee shop often, Fika.

- Right.

Well, I would love to tell you more about it if you're interested.

- I am very interested in the name.

- You want some coffee too perchance?

- I want coffee.

You guys want coffee over there, Levi, yeah?

You want coffee?

Yes, yes, yes.

(laughs) - Let's come on over here.

- Let's have some coffee.

(upbeat music) I want a Fika special, whatever you do.

- We should do the white mocha, yes.

The Cora, which is named after my great grandma who came from Sweden in the late 1800s.

And it's a white mocha with cardamom because cardamom is a big spice in Sweden, which leads me to Fika.

And Fika is the Swedish daily ritual where you take a break and pause in your day, have coffee, have a pastry, and just breathe.

And I just fell in love with that name because that is exactly what I wanted to create here in Sisters was a spot for people to connect, have coffee, have a pastry, and just, ah.

- Oh my goodness.

I love that name.

I love the thought behind it.

- Yeah, it's good, right?

- From here on out, I'm taking my Fika every day.

- Exactly right yes.

- That's how you say it?

- Yes, that's exactly how you say it.

- All right, let's get ready for Fika.

- Let's do a Cora, white mocha, and then what about the rest of the guys?

What do they need?

- I think they should try what you're making me, because that's your special.

- Okay.

We'll do three of those.

- And they don't get to say anything because they get to have Fika.

I mean Cora.

Cora for the Fika.

(upbeat music) Some of these other cultures, they got it figured out.

From the siestas to their afternoon breaks, they have that.

You know, where my family's from in Italy, I'll tell you for two, three hours a day, everything's shut down.

And they're all home, they're all eating with their family, and they're all doing their things, and yeah, it's a beautiful thing, and I think there's so many beautiful cultures, and I just love how they do that.

And now I learned a Swedish one.

- That's right.

Now you have the Swedish one.

And when I created or had the dream for the coffee shop, I just wanted a space for people to do just this, take a break.

And that's what I love about food and coffee and all that because I feel like it just naturally brings us together and over yummy things.

- Think about this, when you're having an issue with someone and maybe someone's a little upset with you, what do you say?

"Hey, wanna meet me for coffee in the morning?"

So if I ask you if you wanna meet me for coffee in the morning.

- Should he be worried?

- I'm just saying.

(upbeat music) So Skane.

- Skane.

- But that's the region.

- Yeah, that's the region.

[Vinny] And so your family is from there.

In the 1800s.

So did anybody come over after that?

- [Renee] Not that I'm aware of.

- So they actually came over, they settled.

And there's your roots from the 1800s.

So right now we're going back to like, really we're going back to horses and buggies.

Because yeah, that's how long ago.

- And they came to Minnesota and then they moved to Yakima.

And that's where my very Swedish grandmother met my very German grandfather.

- I love those stories.

My family came from Naples, Italy.

- [Renee] Okay, wow.

- They lived on the island of Ischia their whole life.

But I still have family in Naples, Rome, Milan, you know, all those places.

And their story is the same too.

But your family then would've had to come over on legit on the boat.

But this coffee is fantastic.

- Do you like it, Vinny?

- I love it.

Is this oat milk?

- I'm so glad.

Oh, I hope so.

- Coconut milk?

- Well that's what you need.

So hopefully that's what they did.

- It's fine.

I don't even know what this flavor is in here.

- Have you ever had cardamom before?

- I have, but not in coffee.

- Okay, I know it goes really well.

- Okay, we got a new phase going, cardamom in coffee.

- Yes.

- Did you guys try this?

That place was so cool and the cardamom coffee was so good.

And Renee was such a doll.

I am so glad that we were able to meet her.

And thank you to Judy, our local fixer who made that happen.

So you remember last time, we went to Sisters Bakery, and the pastries and the coffee and the donuts were top notch.

Then they sent us away with some sourdough bread.

Now I'm a big fan of sourdough, so we were like, "Wow, this is some tasty bread."

So they invited us to a production facility just down the way.

And turns out it's quite the operation.

I can smell it.

- Hey Vinny.

- Wow.

Hello again.

- Welcome to the production facility.

- Wow.

You hear the music?

♪ Ah - And Vinny, I got a little gift for you.

You seem like a beanie guy.

- I am an absolute beanie guy.

I'm official now.

I'm officially part of the crew.

Are you ready to get to work?

- All right, Vinny, let's make some bread.

- Dude, this is a cool facility, man.

Look at this.

This is insane.

I have never been in like a production facility before, and this just blows my mind.

- A lot of bread comes out of here.

- That mixer is sick.

(upbeat music) Yes, look at this.

- Taylor here is gonna show you how to shape some bread.

Bread manager.

- So this is the sourdough.

- This is the sourdough.

- We've already got it divided, shaped it into rounds.

And then we let it rest and we come back through and we'll work.

- How long has it been resting?

- Just the length of time that it took to divide and round.

So we start in order and then we go back to the beginning, start from here.

So, first thing we're gonna do is flatten this out.

- Okay, I'm gonna watch you do it how you like to do it once and I'll do it.

- And then we're gonna make this into a triangle.

So basically fold one side up, one side up, and then top side down.

Get kind of a triangle shape pizza wedge.

And then we'll roll this.

- So we're capturing all that air in there now?

- Yep.

All that air's captured.

And then when we get to about here, we gonna pinch the seam together, make sure the ends are pinched.

Should have a nice tight loaf.

- Okay, so we're gonna get that going there.

Gonna get that flat out.

Wow, you can feel that just beautiful density, it's like, and so how many of these- - You really don't want too much flour on that side.

- Okay, okay, okay, okay, We want it to stick together.

- Yeah, you want it to stick together.

So I work from the sticky side up.

- That is a habit of mine because I always use a lot of flour because I flip it around and I make the pizza.

So that's a bad habit when we're making sourdough.

- You want to incorporate as little extra flour as you can.

- Did you hear that?

Least flour as you can when you're doing sourdough.

So now, I love that, I learned something new.

Okay, so I'm gonna follow you, ready?

I'm gonna go like this.

- And then you're gonna roll away from you, just like a burrito and see how there's not tears really.

- But you are pulling though.

So you're pulling, right?

Yeah, you're pulling a little bit like this.

- You want it just tight enough to where it's not tearing, but it's still together firm.

- [Vinny] I'm trying to make it a little bit bigger.

- This is the trickiest dough we have to work with because it's a high hydration.

- What is the percentage of the hydration on this?

- We're about 75%.

- Oh wow.

It is up there.

Yeah, so see this one here could be fixed a little bit more.

But now I could use some flour.

There.

Do you think I could sell this?

- It'll rise and it'll look beautiful once it's out of the pan.

- Nice.

Do these get scored at all?

- They do.

- They do?

- Yep.

So we rise these at room temperature till they're at the top of the lip of the pan.

Then we put them in the walk-in overnight.

- Very nice.

- They rise the rest of the way in cool temperatures so that they can develop more flavor.

A little more sourness.

- Overnight?

- Yep.

- Tomorrow in the morning, or she's working on some now from yesterday, but she'll be scoring those, getting them in the oven, baking them off.

Just a small mixer there, yep.

We can do about 260 pounds of dough at one time in that.

260 in one time?

- Yep.

- Oh, you see that?

This is how you train your reflexes.

If you could catch it before it comes out.

(upbeat music) - [Taylor] This is risen overnight and scored, and it'll be going in the oven next.

- This is a lot of bread.

- It's a pretty good amount of bread.

Our biggest production day is today going in tomorrow.

And that's for Friday's delivery.

We do about five to 600 loaves right now per day.

- Per day?

- Yep.

We make about 400 per day on normal days.

And then for Friday, we almost hit 600 right now.

So these ladies do our slicing, packaging, and then they load them up every morning and run to Bend and Redmond.

- [Vinny] Wow, wow, so how old is this starter?

Do you know?

- I'm not sure what year they started the starter.

It gets replenished daily with fresh flour and water, so.

- Yeah, but we don't know how old it is.

- But I'm not sure- - Who started it.

Macon, did you start the starter, or was that here before you started?

- When I started in 2019, I kind of revitalized the starter.

It was not where it needed to be, so I'd say at least since '19, it's been going strong.

- Going strong since 2019?

- Yeah yeah.

- We feed it twice a day to keep it really active in vigor.

- You feed it twice a day.

What temperature do you like to leave it at?

- Oh, about 72 is pretty ideal, 75.

In here, it gets a little cooler.

The summer, we put it in a cooler spot, right?

- We try to keep it cool so it's ready to go at the right time of day.

- Oh, take a whiff of that, baby.

Love starter.

It is so fun.

It's a whole different element in baking.

- It's life, you know?

- It is.

It's absolutely alive, man.

Beautiful, guys, thank you for sharing that, man.

- All right, Vinny, you're gonna try a slice of our famous sourdough here.

- And this is like as fresh as it gets right here.

- Right out of the oven.

- Have you cut bread before?

You're pretty good.

You're pretty good, Spence.

- Yes sir.

- What about you?

- Get one for myself.

This is my favorite.

Oh my goodness.

- Look at this.

Oh man, right out of the oven.

Good job, Spence.

- Thank you Vinny.

- Then they sent us home with more sourdough.

I ate sourdough for days.

So now we're heading over to what's called the Black Butte Ranch.

This is like an oasis inside an oasis, if that makes sense.

You're already in these beautiful mountainous surroundings.

And then you enter the ranch, the water, the snow-capped mountains, the contrast of Black Butte and the lush green trees, the horses running through the field which makes you feel like you're in an old Western or out on the range in Wyoming.

The facilities are right there with it.

Gorgeous, attractive, alluring.

It is one of the most beautiful places we visited.

Okay, so a crazy thing happened.

After four seasons and almost 120 shoots, we got stuck out in the rain with no protection on us, and we lost our first camera and all the footage we took of the ranch from that camera.

But even with just the one camera, we were still able to catch the essence of this magnificent place.

Come check it out.

The Black Butte Ranch, it's been around for a while, and it's a must-visit when coming to Sisters.

Matter of fact, in 2020, it marked the ranch's 50th anniversary.

This ranch boasts it all, from horseback riding to golfing to swimming to cross country cycling, five star cuisine, breathtaking scenery.

Hey, and we got to experience some of that beauty.

We got to experience the food, we got to experience the hospitality.

And we even golfed in a winter snow storm.

Check it out.

All right, so as soon as we got there, we met up with the local golf pro and she took us right out on the course.

And here it is.

Here's that freezing winter storm we talked about.

It came up so fast, we were soaked, we were freezing.

So we needed to do a little exercise to warm up.

And our host, Kim, quickly corrected my golf swing.

And so yes, we were freezing.

What a perfect time to head into the kitchen and see what Chef Cooper's cooking up.

(upbeat music) Those guys were so cool.

And what a great kitchen.

And did you see the dishes?

Did you see the food that they were putting out there?

- Yeah, so this is our arugula and radicchio salad with a Green Goddess dressing, and then candied hazelnuts on top.

This is the pork belly dish you had in the kitchen earlier.

Just sweet potatoes, mushrooms, a little bit of apple cider vinegar, and then the pork belly on the top of a celery root and fennel puree.

And this is a rice and potato corn chowder and then a pork belly grilled cheese sandwich.

- You know what, we can't wait.

We already have this summer lined up.

We're coming back, we're staying here, and we're gonna experience everything, including the horseback riding.

(gentle music) Speaking of delicious foods, we're now headed to a local hotspot that serves up some serious Mexican cuisine and margaritas.

This is the owner and operator, Javier Luna, and his family at Rancho Viejo Mexican Restaurant.

(Javier speaking Spanish) - Always ready to eat the good food.

And then your beautiful esposa?

- Mi esposa Lorena.

- Lorena, thank you for having us.

It's cool, did you see this place?

This place is beautiful.

So this is where all the stuff happens right in here, huh?

- Yes, this is where all the action.

- Guys, what's happening?

(upbeat music) Look at this smile.

Look at this, look at him.

Come on, you gotta love him.

This is your cook right here, man oh man.

So you said they're from the same, Cesar is from the same part of Mexico.

What towns?

- Jerez Zacatecas.

So we're from that part of Mexico.

How we ended up in Oregon, I'm still trying to- - Figure it out?

- Figure it out.

- You should write a book about that.

- My parents were a big part of it moving here.

They retired from California and moved into Oregon.

They bought a house and things just started flowing for me in that direction where I just moved to Oregon.

- So what we'd like to see you now do, and I'll back up out of the way.

I'd love to see what kind of meal you're gonna put together tonight.

Or meals or whatever you do.

- [Javier] Let's get ready for that then.

I'm gonna have to grab a chef coat.

- [Vinny] Okay, do it.

(upbeat music) - [Javier] Camarones Al Mojo De Ajo.

- Camarones De Mojo De Ajo?

- Yep.

- So there's garlic in there too?

- [Javier] Yeah, there's garlic in there.

- I'm gonna take these guys with me.

Just love them.

- Okay, so I'm gonna show you (speaking Spanish) This is one of our more popular plates.

It's just a taco plate.

But man, do we sell this a lot.

Well it's gotta be more of a- - [Vinny] Oh, you want more of a cut like this?

- Yeah, more.

- Oh, you want fat?

- [Javier] Yeah, I want them fat.

- [Vinny] You want like one, two, three?

- [Javier] No, more like this.

- Oh, you're actually quartering?

- Yeah, I quarter them because that's the way they stand out better on the plate.

- I will do it however you say.

I'll watch.

So if anybody wonders why this dish is gonna look so good when it comes out, because I chopped the mushrooms very thin.

I went against the Jefe's direction.

You know what's nice though about this kitchen?

Even though it's tight, everything is like right here.

There's no going anywhere.

- I'll tell you, we find ourselves working the kitchen just one cook working the kitchen for the whole restaurant, during lunch, during lunches tend to be a little bit slower.

It's easier to do the plates because people go with those enchiladas, those burritos, the simple stuff.

So during the winter, I only have one cook for lunch.

And having a kitchen this tiny helps a lot.

- This menu's inspired by your town where you're from?

- You know, there's a combination of a lot of things.

My wife has a big part in a lot of these recipes.

And that's influenced by the town we're from.

But we've learned the kitchen with just working for another family here.

I used to manage this place before I took over as an owner.

So I started on the front of the house and worked my way back.

My wife's loved to cook all her life.

So it kind of worked out where I learned how to cook.

And she had all kinds of recipes to offer.

- Really?

That's how it worked out?

- So that's how it worked out.

And I've learned enough on the kitchen.

I have a lot of influence on the type of place to go out.

My wife and I usually put them together and we make sure everything goes out.

- These guys are the real deal.

Wait until you see the plates that they're putting out.

(upbeat music) - [Javier] These are habanero steak tacos.

- Habanero steak tacos.

- So it's got a habanero sauce that's spicy obviously.

This is one of our more popular plates going out every night.

- This is Camarones Al Mojo De Ajo.

So you wanna have a bite?

You want to have a little piece?

- You too.

- Yeah, of course.

If you have one.

I'll have one.

Bueno?

- Mm, muy bueno, rico.

- The name of the dish was Camarones Al Mojo De Ajo.

- I don't know what mojo means.

- Mojo is like dipped and it's like dipped.

- Means dipped.

It's an action.

- It's like an action, mojo.

- Mojo is dipped, thanks, now I know.

Guys, the flavor on that shrimp is insane.

This guy is like, he's ready.

He's a jack of all trades, huh?

He just had his chef coat on and now it's like pssht.

- I take pride in everything I do.

- I see that.

- So I am behind every recipe in the back and I am behind every recipe in the front.

I personally make every margarita that goes out.

The reason why I say that is because I make a big batch, a huge batch of margarita mix.

And therefore, if you like my margaritas, you'll get the same thing every time you come in.

(upbeat music) I'm gonna make a couple margaritas.

So we portion that with a portion cup, So depending on the type of margarita that's served, like this is a blackberry for example.

So we put an additional ounce of blackberry into that mix.

We have the option of margarita salt or tajin, which has gotten really popular these days.

- Yeah, it sure has.

Wait, you're not getting on working with me here.

Okay, now you can pour it.

Javi, man, this is tiring.

(Javier speaking Spanish) - Okay.

The secret recipe.

Dude, that is a bomb margarita.

That is killer.

(Javier speaking Spanish) - Okay.

It's a lot of pressure here, guys.

This is a lot of pressure.

And this is showing a bad example for the youth too, standing here with two of them.

Here, you hold that one.

Honestly, Javi, some of the best margaritas I ever had, good for you.

Good for you.

Come on, come here, come here.

Everybody eat, please.

Come on, eat.

I worked very hard on all this food.

(upbeat music) What a beautiful family.

What a hospitable family.

Just wanted to hug them all and take them home with me.

They were just fantastic.

Food was fantastic.

You must visit Rancho Viejo in Sisters.

It was a special two days here in Sisters.

It's easy to just wanna stay.

The people, the scenery, the outdoors, the food, it's all right here, right in Central Oregon.

I'm so happy we made it this way.

And a special thanks again to our local tour guide, Judy.

She made it extra special.

(gentle music) So there you have it, the happiest town in the state of Oregon.

We ate well.

We visited an old ranch that all can now enjoy.

We were welcomed behind the scenes of one of Oregon's top bakeries, met some people who really, in the truest sense of it, carry on their home country's traditions.

We'll see you next time as we go all across Oregon.

(upbeat music) Funding for "All Across Oregon" was provided in part by John A Warekois, CPA, Travel Curry Coast, Travel Southern Oregon, Oregon's Adventure Coast, F.V.

Martin Trucking Company, and Travel Southern Oregon Coast.

(gentle music)