It was never beautiful. It always seemed packed with bric a brac, and the patio was…disheveled. And although it was directly across the street from the Trade and Convention Centre, it was crammed into the bottom corner of an unremarkable old building.
But what the Cleopatra Café lacked in visual style, it made up for in food...and intriguing ownership. People who knew it, loved it. And the boss seemed to be almost as celebrated as his cuisine.
Even today, you won't find a restaurant review website where Cleopatra and its Middle Eastern/Turkish food rates less than 4.5 stars.
But the days of the Cleopatra Café are now over. A couple months ago, Chef Nasir sold his baby to a Penticton newcomer.
That newcomer is a fellow named Bryan Venne. A few months ago, Venne was living in Chase, BC, running a restaurant he creatively called "Life's A Beach."
Now he's brought that catchy name, and its menu and approach, to the little old building across from the Trade and Convention Centre.
There, Venne and staff -- several of whom are Cleopatra holdovers -- are already serving customers from a menu focused on donairs (Venne unabashedly calls them the best in the region), Chicago-style deep dish pizza, and to a lesser extent burgers, paninis, and more.
In the next few weeks and months, the new owner of 102 - 786 Westminster Ave. says he'll conduct a "complete makeover" on the interior and perhaps just as importantly turn the patio space outside from sketchy to showpiece.
But what brought this guy to Penticton? What's his story?
We thought you’d never ask.
Venne, an engaging dude who's apparently seen enough physical grief (heart attack at 29, collapsed lung, brain injury, and, he claims, a lightning strike) for five lifetimes, was not so long ago working construction in Kamloops.
And then, he says, he bought an inflatable kayak from Amazon.ca. And that's when his world changed for good.
"So I took the kayak out one day (on Little Shuswap Lake, which butts right up to downtown Chase) and a couple pulled up to me and said, 'Hey, that's pretty cool. Do you rent them?'
"I asked if they were serious and he said, 'Rent it to me for an hour and I'll give you fifty bucks."
Venne did just that, and his surprise customers loved it. So he bought two more kayaks and started renting them too.
"Then three weeks later," he says, "I took all the money I'd made -- I was making $300 a day -- and bought a little food cart."
That was his start in the biz. He positioned the cart near the beach, sold typical beachy fare, and called the enterprise "Life's A Beach."
Soon, Venne had a mobile barbecue pit, then about a year and a half ago, a real restaurant with four walls.
"Business was good," he recounts. "I had a huge response from all the locals."
Much of that response, it seems, came from Venne's newish menu item, the donair. And not some generic donair either. According to Venne, the Life's a Beach donair came from a fascination with food and cooking he'd harboured since his youth and several months of hardcore experimentation.
"My mom taught me a lot when I was growing up," he says. "I was always in the kitchen helping her cook. I still love to cook.
"I had people coming from as far as Vancouver and Golden just to taste the donairs. They're incredible."
But there was more to LAB's menu, of course. Like Chicago-style deep dish pizza.
"I perfected the crust," laughs Venne. "It took me seven months to come up with it. Every day for seven months. And I make it all by hand."
In October of 2021, Venne's seemingly permanent detour to Penticton began when he brought his cart to town for a Halloween event. While here, he chatted with the folks at Cleopatra about buying a pizza oven.
"And Nasir said, 'Why don’t you buy the restaurant instead? He gave me an offer I thought was great. So that's what I did."
Today, Life's A Beach is a work in progress. The full menu has yet to be perfected and the interior still needs work. But the grandest transformation is reserved for the patio.
"I came here with a mission," says Venne. "And I see so much potential here. It's a great location.
"Inside, I have to renovate the whole thing. I have a Slurpee machine and an ice cream machine coming this summer, and burgers and paninis and lots of stuff.
"Outside will be its own VIP area with its own little barbecue pit. It'll be a separate menu. I have tents going up out there, and it’ll be licensed. The blueprint for the patio is phenomenal."
And in the summer, the joint will also rent inflatable watercraft.
"Yep, I'll be doing my rentals from this location," he says. "Kayaks and paddleboards. I have a hundred inflatables now, and we'll have packages for special occasions with food and inflatables."
We asked Venne if he's familiar with the wholesale transformation that's just begun in the North Gateway area, and if he worries the Life's A Beach building is imminently destined for the wrecking ball.
"I was a bit worried about it coming in," he says. "But I'm on a two-year lease right now and my landlord seems to like me and doesn't want to lose me.
"I think it could be productive in the long run when I see what they want to do to the area. It could be great for me. I did ask him (my landlord) though that if he ever wants to sell to let me know first."
Life's A Beach, at 102 - 786 Westminster Ave., is currently open from 11 am to 7 pm every day of the week but Monday. After the May long weekend, it'll open for breakfast too. We're told delivery throughout Penticton is free.
A website will debut in March, but for more info in the meantime call 250-770-2015 or drop by.
