A Sense of Place.

OLD VINES RESTAURANT 11:30 am to 9 pm daily Sunday Brunch 10:30 am to 2:30 pm WINESHOP 9:30 am to 7 pm - May to October 10 am to 6 pm - November to April

“One of the four best places to dine in the Okanagan Valley.” - Wine Spectator OPEN YEAR ROUND Reserve online at quailsgate.com | 250-769-4451

plans for something in the future?? Other exciting news for Kelowna's downtown restaurant circuit is the announcement that Fresco's award-winning restaurant has closed! Fear not fans of super Chef Rod Butters cuisine, he and partner Audrey Surrao have announced that are morphing the old Fresco's digs into a brand new upscale casual restaurant. RauDZ Regional Table (an amalgamation of their names) is under construction and will hopefully be open in time for the return of the warmer weather. As per Butters' style, the menu will be seasonally inspired and focus on local ingredients with the wine list celebrating Okanagan's finest. Promising a welcoming ambiance with a more casual edge including a new eating bar and flat screen televisions, RauDZ Regional Table sounds like it will be a great place to hang out, eat well and enjoy a fabulous glass of vino or a local brew on tap. The wonderful trend of small gourmet markets and delis continues to spread throughout the Okanagan. O’Rourke’s Uptown Market offers a large product line of local and gourmet items for the discerning shopper. Fresh produce, deli items and a meat section make this one stop shop handy for all of the new downtown condo and loft owners. 1321 St. Paul Street 250-712-0759. When visiting the gorgeous Naramata wine region of our Valley, mark down The Bench Market for your lunch break. Delicious, gourmet food that focuses on locally grown products, The Bench also sells perfect ingredients for a picnics and great ideas for Okanagan epicurean gifts. The Chicken Panini, which contains house made oven roasted chicken breast with cambanzola cheese topped with pear chutney and pesto aioli and red onion is heavenly – and don’t miss a big glass of the addictive, power pickme-up – the Matcha lemonade (only available in the hot months – so you can make use of their great espresso bar in the meantime). They cater too! 368 Vancouver Avenue 250-492-2222 www.thebenchmarket.com If you would like to take a break from sipping the grapes and move onto another delicious Okanagan creation – check out Penticton’s own Cannery Brewing Company. Boasting a line up of absolutely delicious beers with flavours ranging from the Blackberry Porter (pair with chocolate!) to Maple Stout – these brews will knock you socks off! www.cannerybrewing.com. While mapping out your next visit to wine country, why not take in a cooking class taught by our very own Celebrity Chef Michael Allemeier? Former host of FOOD TV’s Cook Like A Chef, Chef Allemeier and Terrace Chef Matt Batey will share so of their secret tips and delicious recipes in their State of the Art kitchens at breathtaking Mission Hill Winery. Check out their class schedule online at: www.missionhillwinery.com. Rhys Pender, our most famous local wine guy (who is working on becoming the "youngest Master of Wine in Canada”) is expanding his already long CV to include internet television. Rhys, owner of Wine Plus+ Education/Consulting, has filmed a segment on B.C. wines to be broadcasted on www.WinelibraryTV.com. —Jennifer Schell

It’s Happy Hour for Real Ale

Ebrewed, cask conditioned, real ales by gravity, the way beers were served a hundred very weekday at 4pm Spinnakers Brewpub puts a cask on the bar and dispenses craft

years ago and before. Priced at $5/pint (less than a regular pint) when the 30 litre cask runs dry, that is it for the day. (Generally, they last a couple of hours.) Cask ales undergo a secondary fermentation in the cask and tend to be softer, smoother and creamier due to the CO2 being more finely dissolved than typical keg beer or even real ale beers dispensed from a larger serving vessel, most often pushed by CO2 or mixed gas. The beers are typically dry hopped or additives are introduced to give the casks a special character. As such, cask conditioned beers provide the ultimate expression of the brewer's art and give our brewers an opportunity to be creative on a daily basis. Invites are out to local breweries to bring a cask of their best on the first Friday of every month. On Feb 6th, Driftwood Brewing supplied a cask of their Farmhand Ale which was dispensed alongside Spinnaker’s own Belgian Abby Cask (see photo above). A special cask night is slated for March 14th from noon until 5 PM. It is hoped that 20 to 30 different casks from a wide range of brewers will be on tap. www.spinnakers.com

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EAT MAGAZINE MARCH | APRIL 2009