T H E
L I N N - B E N T O N
C O M M U N I T Y
VOL. 52 EDITION 19
C O L L E G E
APRIL 7, 2021
Smiles Aglow
New Outdoor Restaurant Area Common Fields Holds One of Corvallis' First Acoustic Shows Since the Pandemic Began STORY AND PHOTOS BY DAKOTA GANGE Smiles, everywhere. A walk through this sunny evening's gated outdoor eatery would bathe you in positive energy, radiating from the crowds. With the sound of laughter from adults and kids, and happy tail-wagging-dogs tagging along, it’s almost impossible not to forget the times we're living in. Here at Common Fields, life is abuzz and children are aplay. The strums of a guitar and a warm voice fill the speakers and air. Could it be a dream? As you walk in the entrance, you are greeted sometimes by the owners themselves while they carefully count people to stay within the state's max capacity guidelines -here currently in Benton County, it’s 25%. Common Fields has really nailed the “all are welcome” environment, providing a spacious, comfortable, and seemingly safe area for patrons to enjoy food, drinks, entertainment, and each other's company. “We tried to figure out how we can make the outside viable and comfortable for people in the winter, basically assuming we will never have inside seating, so how can we stay open seven days a week?” said owner Jacob Oliver. “We wanted a place that was very family friendly, dog friendly was
really important, and making the atmosphere kid friendly was super important. We wanted a place where you could hang out and eat really good food, drink really good beer, and bring your kids but not feel kinda like you're shunned in the corner, but you can go without kids and not feel like ‘ugh, there's kids everywhere.’ We wanted it inclusive to everybody.” Upon entering, on the left you’ll instantly notice extremely tall roof coverings that tower above heated tables, with heated bench seats to warm your tuchas, which were handmade by Oliver himself. There are some tables aglow with fire, and some only below the sky itself. There are more tables to the right that are covered, and next to a kids play area. To the left, is the tap room Common Fields itself, with wide open huge garage-like doors, so you never feel trapped among four airsharing walls. Along with a friendly staff, they have 16 on-tap selections of unique and “hard to come by” beer, which Oliver tracks down and selects himself, eliminating any third-party vendors and promoting sustainability and local products. Here is their current
menu.
“We focus only on Oregon products with beer specifically, but also wine, cider, and mead. All our food is locally sourced; it has to be locally sourced in Oregon or from a company in Oregon,” said Oliver. “We only go through self-distributors, and
William Steelman enjoying the music and beer.
don’t go through any big distributors. We mainly wanted to keep the money in small businesses.” Across the large paved plot of outside seating are three “food trucks.” However, as much as we all love the Portland food truck scene, this isn’t the same at all. Rather, it’s three little tiny houses that just happen to have wheels and serve food amid the fenced outdoor “Common Fields.” Kalamata Bistro is a food segment of Common Fields, and Terra’s Tastee Treats and ZIA Southwest Cuisine are locally and independently owned. Check them all out here.
There’s a stage, and this evening Mike Ewing was doing a solo
acoustic set, full of both original and popular songs to sing along to. Smiles were contagious on this spring evening as the effervescent crowd soaked up the sun. While originally supposed to fully open up May 1 of 2020, Common Fields has had a seemingly rough go of it both with the on-andmostly-off pandemic shutdowns of Corvallis, and the ash that filled last year’s summer and fall air from the wildfires. After it was clear they were not reopening for a bit, Jacob and Cherish Oliver initiated a teamup of a couple other local restaurants, where they all quietly donated several thousand dollars worth of food to fire evacuees. “Over the course of those two weeks, we served over 8,000 meals,” said Jacob Oliver. “Our [Jacob and Cherish] vision of this place is we wanted to create a place that we would want to go to. We were inspired by a lot of places in Bend, some in Eugene and Portland. Before this I’ve been in the food and beer industry for so long, that I have all the connections and ideas building up over the last 15-20 years.” It couldn’t be more clear that these ideas came to fruition as the smiles of many were contagious on this spring evening, and as the effervescent crowd soaked up the sun.
For More See Pages 4-5
Inside this Edition
GRAPHICS FREEPIK.COM
GRADUATION 2021
SEE PAGE 2
ZOOM BURNOUT
SEE PAGE 3
WELCOME PHOTOJ
SEE PAGES 7-9