It was Shakespeare that brought us to Ashland, home of Oregon’s famous theater festival. But as we hiked through the city’s gorgeous Lithia Park on a recent June morning, one question kept resurfacing. No, not “To be or not to be?” We were seeing “Macbeth” later, not “Hamlet,” and anyway, this query had higher stakes than any royal monologue.
How many days in a row could we order the same outrageous raclette grilled cheese at Skout Taphouse and Provisions, just across from the park, before someone, you know, said something? With its melty Alpine cheese, thick rashers of bacon and lingonberry jam — truffle fries on the side — the Ultra Meltathon ($15) is enough to make anyone mangle a monologue and start saying that all the world’s a sandwich or music be the love of food. The Bard first cast his enchanting spell over this city in 1935, when thespians gathered at the local Chautauqua in Lithia Park to stage “Twelfth Night.” But Lithia Park and the profusion of charming restaurants nearby spin a magic of their own, one with ties to the theater company that dominates not only the city’s economy but its very vibrancy.
All those factors have inspired more than menu puns — yes, Midwinter Night’s Dram, we’re looking at you. They’ve also spun off a literary subgenre that includes 20 cozy, modern-day murder mysteries set in the Shakespeare theaters, the eateries, the hotels and this gorgeous park. (More on the books in a sec.
) Lithia Park was designe.
