New downtown Bend restaurant to open and pay homage to women in local history

Olive & May, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant, will open this weekend on the northwest corner of Wall Street and Franklin Avenue in downtown Bend, replacing the former Drake restaurant and flipping the script by paying homage to the women vital to Bend’s history.

Husband and wife, Fergal Donoher and Caprice Neely, moved to Bend 13 years ago with their daughter. The family visited Drake, named after pioneer Alexander Drake, the week it opened and eating at the local restaurant became an almost-weekly tradition.

“We always enjoyed coming in,” Donoher said. “We’re invested in this place as a family. It’s something very personal to us.”

The couple purchased the space in October, before Drake closed, and started the remodel in April. After asking the Deschutes Historical Museum for help, they found a way to honor significant women in Bend’s history with Olive & May.

In the 1920s, May Arnold led the Women’s Civic Improvement League and gathered 1,500 signatures out of 5,700 residents to support a $21,000 bond to finance the city’s purchase of the land along the Deschutes River, which is now known as Drake Park. Arnold prevented the 10.5 acres from becoming a housing development or paper mill.

“This woman does not get enough attention,” said Rebekah Averette, collections manager at Deschutes Historical Museum. “She was like a powerhouse in the community.”

Averette described Drake Park as Bend’s “jewel.”

Deschutes Historical Museum Executive Director Kelly Cannon-Miller added, “Everybody talks about Alexander Drake all the time, and I did enjoy the Drake restaurant that was there previously. So nothing against them, but it’s amazing to have May Arnold’s name associated with something near the park.”

Olive McKay arrived around 1910 with husband Clyde McKay. The family ran the Bend Development Company and built their 1947 office in the existing building where Olive & May now resides.

“The McKay family was very important to the founding of the city of Bend,” Cannon-Miller said. “They were involved in almost everything.”

The family helped facilitate expansion of the city, donating property and building a variety of service clubs. Their 1916 family home is now the McKay Cottage Restaurant.

Donoher and Neely came up with the idea to co-own the restaurant with longtime friend Peter Kost, who is also one of the owners of Ken’s Artisan Pizza and has been in the restaurant industry for over 40 years.

The restaurant, which Neely designed as a 1920s neighborhood hangout, will mainly serve food with influences from Spain, France, Italy and Greece.

With Greek and Italian family heritage, Kost said he decided on a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant because it was a familiar concept to him yet newish to Bend. While most local restaurants focus on a specific cuisine, Kost said that Olive & May brings flavors from various cuisines together.

“We’re not reinventing the wheel on every dish,” Kost said, “but using all those influences together on a menu is something that isn’t being offered that I see around Bend.”

Combining food and drink with women’s history

Considering the restaurant’s proximity to Drake Park, Donoher and Neely said they liked the name “Drake” but felt the space needed something new and decided to look into local history.

“We get a lot of people that come into the museum who want to know the history of buildings and want help naming things or some inspiration,” Averette said. “But we could tell right away that Caprice and Fergal were very serious about highlighting some of the women in this community that maybe don’t get talked about as much, but who were pillars in the community.”

After deciding on Olive & May, Donoher and Neely went back to the museum for a list of other women who made significant contributions to local history who would be highlighted in artwork on the restaurant’s walls.

“That was really a neat opportunity too for us,” Averette added.

The wall of 17 women includes Bend’s first female county commissioner, first mayor and a guiding force behind St. Charles Medical Center. There will be QR codes on the back of the restaurant menu that leads to information about each woman.

Donoher and Neely intend to encourage a “vibrant” downtown and celebrate women in local history that haven’t received as much recognition. They decided to keep all of Drake’s staff, including its chefs. The couple hopes Olive & May will maintain the same momentum as Drake and become a weekly spot for families that like to eat out, like Drake was for them.

“We want it to be somewhere that people continue to feel comfortable coming in with families because Drake did that,” Donoher said. “We’ve had a lot of Drake customers come in saying they’re excited for something new.”

Olive & May will open Sunday, Aug. 16, and start taking reservations on Monday, Aug. 17, via Resy. They will be open six days a week from 4:30 to 9 p.m. on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The restaurant expects to expand to serving lunch soon.