Sometimes it’s easy to miss what’s right in front of you.

Take your average bar. Not the building, or establishment, but the actual bar. You set your drink on it, you rest your elbows on it, you lean across it to talk to the bartender or fellow bar mates. But do you ever really stop and look at it?

Bend is chock full of interesting bars, and even more interesting stories behind them. Here’s a handful of such bar tales from local establishments.

Worthy Brewing Co.

Worthy’s bar top might just have the craziest story in Bend. It, along with much of the pub’s interior, is made from wood salvaged from the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, formerly called the Oregon State Insane Asylum . The wood itself is old growth Douglas fir harvested from the Roseburg area in the 1890s, and was used in the mental hospital’s structure. After discovering that the wood was being sold, Worthy’s owner, Roger Worthington, purchased 9,000 board feet of it as a nod to his obsession with “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the movie of which was filmed at the hospital.

Chris Hodge, CEO of the brewery, said most of Worthy’s staff believe that residual energy from the asylum has accompanied the wood.

“A lot of them say they’ve heard or felt something,” Hodge said. “They believe that the bar has some spirit world activity. But nothing bad has happened. Most people have a really great time here and enjoy the heck out of the beer.”

O’Kanes at McMenamins Old St. Francis School

McMenamins’ Old St. Francis School has four bars altogether, but perhaps the most interesting is at O’Kanes, a former garage on the old school campus that’s tucked away in the back corner of the complex. The O’Kanes bar was built in 2004, and is one of the few, if not the only, cigar bars in Bend. According to Jared Prince, property manager of McMenamins Old St. Francis School, the bar top itself is made from wood salvaged from a Jim Beam distillery warehouse in Kentucky, which was partially destroyed in a 2003 fire.

Crux Fermentation Project

It’s hard to miss the large concrete slab in Crux’s tasting room, which looks as though it’s been set atop a stack of enormous Jenga blocks. The bar, which was installed in 2012, is one 20-foot-long, 1,200-pound block of concrete made by Cement Elegance in Bend. Crux’s owners opted for concrete as a way to honor the building’s past as a transmission repair shop.

“We wanted to honor the industrial nature of our building,” Paul Evers, co-owner of Crux, said. “It’s reflective of the aesthetic of materials of the building itself.”

The bar also has a beer tap dispenser, called a cap tower, made from fire sprinkler pipes and set in the middle of the bar.

The Blacksmith

In February, The Blacksmith’s bar underwent a renovation that made it practically unrecognizable from its wilder days. Formerly made of transparent, recycled milk jugs that glowed from lights placed inside the bar, The Blacksmith’s three-sided, wraparound counter was transformed when it came under new ownership earlier this year. It is now covered with sheets of copper, a nod to the building’s past as a blacksmith shop.

“It’s the first thing that anyone sees when they walk in,” said Beka Lowrey-Evans, The Blacksmith’s bar manager. “We wanted to keep it in line with the main blacksmith theme. We wouldn’t want it to be anything else.”

And even though it no longer glows from within, the copper bar actually gives off a warmer feeling than the old bar, Lowrey-Evans said, as it reflects the overhead lights.

“The bar is kind of the staple piece here, and the old glowing bar just didn’t fit in,” said Lowrey-Evans. “There’s no late night dancing here anymore, and without the club aspect, it didn’t make sense.”

Velvet

Installed in 2009, Velvet’s quaint bar is tucked away in the building’s second story. The bar, often obscured by drinks and customers, was constructed out of reclaimed wood from a 100-year-old Maupin barn. This wood was also used in the construction of much of the bar’s interior, said bar owner Cori Hamilton.

“We were kind of looking for a rustic cabin piece,” Hamilton said. “Because the place is so small, we wanted it to have good lighting and to have a homey feel.”

In addition to two long planks of wood, the bar also has a long strip of recycled resin running down its middle. Lights placed inside the bar make the resin section glow, and Hamilton said this gives off a warm and cozy vibe that customers respond to.

“It’s the No. 1 feature that people notice when they walk in,” Hamilton said. “The bar is kind of the centerpiece.”

— Reporter; 541-383-0354, mkehoe@bendbulletin.com