Talk great restaurants in Penticton, and there's a good chance someone mentions The Nest & Nectar. Though it's been around for just two years and isn't exactly rooted way back in the city's culture, it's crazily popular.
Why? For starters, it's forged alliances with the local art community, and in particular Penticton's most prodigious theatre company, Many Hats, which stages its performances in the venue adjoining the restaurant.
Nest and Nectar owners, Fergy and Randy Foster, moved here from Calgary specifically to run it, and Randy recently sat down with us to discuss how it all began.
"Penticton is the place we both wanted to move to. We both spent our summers here growing up. It just felt like home, always. We still feel like we're on vacation even now that we live here.
"And we feel pretty strongly about the arts community. So we scoped out Penticton for a year and a half, looking for a spot to open a restaurant where we could have some kind of theatre or live music.
"And Many Hats was looking for a restaurant that would offer services that complemented their performances. So when this spot came up, we packed our bags and moved."
Today, they're inseparable. The Nest & Nectar acts as a box office for the veteran theatre company and offers dinner packages on performance nights. And Many Hats, symbiotically, dishes the post-meal entertainment.
But the restaurant also supports artists who paint rather than act. Walk in any day of any week and you'll see the walls covered with the works of local painters. Foster says they're the product of the South Okanagan branch of the Canadian Federation of Artists.
The Nest & Nectar brings in a new batch of paintings every three months, holds an opening night reception, and gives 100% of sales back to the artist.
And they assist local community groups too. According to Foster, "We give our space out on days we close early to non-for-profits looking for space to have meetings and gatherings. We support four to twelve charities a year. We try for non-profits that are not government funded, like Critteraid, Discovery House, and Dragonfly Pond."
With all this cool stuff going on, you get the sense that working at The Nest & Nectar is pretty amazing. And you'd be right.
Alisha Bolger is a shift supervisor who's been with the restaurant since its October 2016 opening. And she's a happy camper. "I like it because we're all a family. We're just really tight knit. We have family dinners together and we help each other out at work and outside of it."
She treats her customers like family too. "We have a lot of regulars who come here every day. And if they don't come in, we worry about them," she says with a laugh.
Server Ally Marshall, who's also going to school for a potential career as a social worker, echoes Bolger's thoughts. "None of the jobs I've worked at have come close to the atmosphere here. We all look out for each other, and we hangout outside of work."
Marshall's mom is a Nest & Nectar chef, and her sister preps part-time. Seems the place really is a family affair.
Of course, all of the above wouldn't matter if the food was blah. But it isn't, and the five-star ratings all over the Interweb bear that out.
Foster says industry experience is Step #1. "Between Fergy and I, we collectively have 35 years in the restaurant industry. She's opened 12 restaurants, and owned two of them. This is my first ownership of a restaurant, but I've trained in restaurants for twelve years."
Buying local is Step #2. "Every week we source our menu locally. We buy local produce, we buy our seafood and meats from the coast, and try to make a really fresh concept menu for dinner."
"All of our menus have vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, and meat-eater options. Everyone can come here."
And, says Foster, "All of our food is made from scratch. That's our big thing. We take raw ingredients to build our food and our beverages because that makes us confident in our ability to deliver options for everyone."
But the real fun seems reserved for the bar. The peeps at Nest & Nectar really have a blast creating cocktails, experimenting with fruits and juices and elixirs like mad scientists building the perfect formula.
The menu is littered with creative offerings such as "Ola Burro!," "River Channel Float," and "Local Comrades." That last one was voted "Okanagan's Best Caesar 2017," and that's just one of multiple awards the establishment has claimed in the past couple years.
You'll find The Nest & Nectar in the Cannery Trade Centre on Duncan Avenue. It's open every day of the week but Monday. Check the website for exact hours or to take a gander at the menu.
Or call 250-493-7275 to make a reservation at a cool eatery with a real sense of community.
