PRINEVILLE – One of Central Oregon’s most celebrated chefs has opened his newest enterprise not in the trendy environs of downtown Bend, nor the up-and-coming urban hip of Redmond.

When the semi-retired Axel Hoch decided to try something new, he opted for a steakhouse in the heart of cowboy country – downtown Prineville.

”I’ve always liked Prineville and thought the town was ready for something like this,” said Hoch, a vibrant and energetic 62. ”This is a step above for Prineville.”

Indeed, a $20 steak dinner drops a few jaws in this humble town, where denim and dusters are a more common uniform than suits and ties. But judging by the packed tables and satisfied diners at Barney Prine’s Steak House and Saloon, no one in Prineville seems to mind the price tag attached to one of Hoch’s meaty meals.

Hoch trained for a culinary career in Europe, where he got a degree in hotel management in Bavaria, the southernmost state in Germany. Later, at the suggestion of his father, he attended a culinary arts program in Berlin, then embarked on a tour of Europe that had him managing hotels in Spain, Germany and elsewhere.

Moving to the United States in 1970, Hoch started cooking at classy restaurants in the Bay Area before he took a ski vacation to Bend and was hooked. ”I thought, ‘This is God’s country,’ ” Hoch said.

So he moved to Bend and opened the Black Forest, a classy-but-casual German restaurant on Century Drive and one of Bend’s first high-end restaurants.

Three years later, in 1976, Hoch remodeled an old Church of the Nazarene on Third Street and opened Le Bistro, which for nearly 20 years defined French cuisine in Bend.

Hoch had his hand in several other restaurants in Bend through the years, including the original Old Bend Blacksmith Shop on Greenwood Avenue, which he sold in 1991, and a new Axel’s Black Forest in south Bend, which he closed in 2001 to relax into retirement.

But retirement didn’t fit Hoch.

”You could take me to the beach for three weeks and after one week I’m bored,” he said.

So he started looking for a new restaurant and found a spot in Prineville. The downtown location had a lot going for it – a long bar, roomy dining room and large kitchen. But Hoch put his trademark remodeling skills to work, tearing down green ceiling tiles to reveal a rustic beam ceiling, repositioning the bar and covering it with warmly glowing copper and otherwise gutting the former bar to make it his own.

Hoch procured a beechwood floor from Kentucky that came from a dismantled Jim Beam distillery. The Jim Beam marinade for Barney’s one-pound blacksmith shop steak ($19.95) is in homage to that floor.

The rest of the menu is suitably steakhouse – New York pepper steak ($17.95) and filet mignon with Bearnaise sauce ($18.95) – with some alternatives for the non-beef-eaters – baked salmon Florentine ($14.95) and mahi mahi Tropicana ($13.95).

Barney Prine’s – named for Prineville’s founder, a blacksmith and store/saloon owner who sold whiskey out of the back room of his blacksmith shop – opened Aug. 11.

Chef Micah Ashwill, who Hoch said sponged up everything Hoch knew when the pair worked together at Axel’s Black Forest, brings his fine touch to the kitchen while Hoch manages, visits with customers and does a thousand other jobs at the restaurant.

Hoch said he likes the personal interactions with customers. He even tries to remember their names, but with a growing customer base, it becomes harder every week.

Hoch said the success so far at Barney Prine’s has been well beyond his expectations.

It’s an indication, he says, of how Prineville can embrace a newcomer.