The text came Monday morning from an employee, as mundane as any, and took Corrine Coxey, owner of Salud Raw Food restaurant in Bend, completely by surprise.

“Woody Harrelson is here and he’s excited about your food,” the text read.

Harrelson, a “Cheers” actor and committed vegan who ordered “rawkin’ tacos” and other items with his wife Laura Louie, returned to the restaurant Tuesday and vowed to visit again. He said they were visiting family in the area. The headlines followed.

“I’m really honored that they came in and were excited about it,” Coxey said. “Woody has been vegan for 30 years and you know he has eaten in the best places in the world, so it was a real compliment.”

Coxey opened her raw food restaurant in 2013, which uses no stoves or ovens to prepare healthy, organic, plant-based dishes. This year was the slowest ever, she said, to the point where she often wondered if she could do that. close. The arrival of the TV and film star is a “boon” for the business community, she said.

“All this publicity couldn’t have come at a better time as things have been pretty bleak lately,” she wrote via text. “The local news here did a story on the 6 p.m. news tonight. We were twice as busy as today!”

She hopes he will come back too, not just for the sake of her business results: “He and his wife were very sweet and modest.”

— Bet Slovic is an editor on the Public Safety and Breaking News team. Reach her at 503-221-8551 or [email protected].

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