Page 62 - DreamScapes Magazine | Fall/Winter 2025

TRAVEL
PLANNER
For travel information about
Kelowna, visit tourismkelowna.com.
Porter Airlines flies to Kelowna from
Montréal, St. John’s, Halifax, and
Ottawa with connecting service
through Toronto. Porter has a new
year-round direct service to Kelowna
from Toronto five times per week. For
air reservations, see flyporter.com
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DREAMSCAPES FALL/WINTER 2025
morning staple at Sunny’s Modern Diner
where the Kelowna culinary spirits came
alive! The popular downtown diner with a
female-led kitchen is the turf of Chef Rod
Butters. “Really, two places lured me—Mis-
sion Hill and Quails’ Gate,” the maestro chef
who launched the Wickaninnish Inn’s Pointe
Restaurant in Tofino, B.C., recalled of the
city’s early restaurant days.
When Butters arrived 25 years ago, good
dining was scant. Tumbleweed rolled down
Bernard Avenue where Sunny’s now resides.
Since then, over 400 restaurants are on the
city’s playbill, and in summer, Bernard
Avenue turns into a pedestrian-friendly food
zone called, “Meet Me on Bernard.”
The popular downtown initiative touts
bustling patios, booming restaurants, and as
Cassandra Wysochanskyj, spokesperson for
Meet Me on Bernard, reasons, Kelowna is up for
UNESCO status. “We are about community and
this UNESCO status will just amplify all the
amazing things that are happening,” she said.
For a population of nearly 166,000 residents,
which insiders say is one of the country’s
fastest growing cities, that’s plates galore!
To delve deeper, I joined Andrew Deans,
owner and operator of “A Taste of Kelowna
Food Tours,” who promised to show me only
unique eateries. We met at the historic Laurel
Packinghouse, one of Kelowna’s fruit packing
remnants, which houses a museum and was
the start of our seven-course star-studded
eat-and-drink adventure. We riffed with
restaurant staff, snacked on samples, and
took a lakefront “pit stop” for ice cream to
prep for more stops. The hefty players on my
culinary playlist: Sprout for the best avocado
on toast; burgers and beer at BNA; pizza at
Curious Cafe; Mexican tacos at El Taquero;
and for a ’70s throwback, let’s get funky at
Skinny Duke’s Glorious Emporium. In
between dim sum shareables and a
refreshing cucumber cocktail (cukes in liquor
aren’t my first go-to, but in Boba Fett it
works!), served by a Geraldo Rivera stand-in,
this panelled rec room-inspired pub is worth
a drop in.
One of my memorable meals playing
foodie detective took place after my e-bike
tour. Hot, hungry and thirsty, we headed to
Kettle River Brewing Company in the north
end. Home of Chef Brock Bowes (Food Net-
work Canada’s Top Chef, Chopped champion,
and People’s Choice Gold Medal Winner of
Kelowna Now’s Best Of), the scene at this
neighbourhood microbrewery (Kelowna’s
first) is best described as “chilled” like the
rest of Kelowna.
We bellied up at a booth and met wife and
co-owner Courtney Koga. “Any recommenda-
tions?” I asked, sharing that I’m no picky eater.
Sandwiched between summer camp
kitsch decor with shades of B-movie props, a
flight of mini-pints appeared on a hand-
crafted wood fish head-to-tail paddle,
followed by the snacks. Elk carpaccio with
pickled rhubarb and a super spicy sausage
corn dog wrapped in bacon. And then, Chef
Brock arrived. No fuss, no nonsense—the
pub fare is simple, yet complex. “I don’t like
all the chi-chi that star-rated restaurants rep-
resent,” he admitted, sharing the nasturtium
flower on my napkin ring was plucked that
morning from his happy place, the backyard
garden.
For me, caring for the land (tmxʷulaxʷ)
and for the people (tmixʷ) is Kelowna’s culi-
nary backbone. UNESCO designation or not,
Kelowna is ripe with culinary wonders. DS
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF TOURISMKELOWNA.COM/KEN HAGEN | ILONA KAUREMSZKY