The segment of Highway 3 that passes through Keremeos is a big reason the farming community 40 minutes south of Penticton is known far and wide as the "fruit stand capital" of BC/Canada.
It's absolutely packed with them.
But the modern new two-storey structure currently being built at 3045 Hwy. 3, just a minute west of the downtown strip and on the perimeter of a peach orchard, is different. It won't be a fruit stand at all. Nor will it be a fruit packing plant.
Instead, it'll be a first for the town – a cidery. A cidery complete with a full complement of cider- and juice-making equipment, a spacious taproom with a generous drink menu, a big outdoor patio, lots of seating, and, sometime in the not too distant future, food too.
It'll be called "Lass Chance Beverage Co.," a play on the surname of the family that owns the facility, a family that's been part of the fruit-growing culture of the Similkameen Valley for several decades but is only now branching into cider and the venues that serve it.
That family name is "Lasser." Since 1988 they’ve run "Lasser Produce."
Now they're running "Lass Chance" too.
And when it debuts this summer, Lass Chance seems it'll be ideally positioned to capture the attention of anyone passing through Keremeos. It'll sit just meters from the key intersection of Highway 3 and the Keremeos Bypass Road.
PentictonNow dropped by unannounced earlier this week as we zipped through town, and were lucky enough to arrive at approximately the same time as Lass Chance cider-maker, a gentleman by the name of Tim Kitchen.
Kitchen, who in 2018 co-founded popular Calgary-based craft cidery "SunnyCider" and moved to the Okanagan with his wife a year ago for the new opportunity, couldn’t tell us everything. Lass Chance is, after all, still months from launch and undoubtedly there is much to be decided.
But he was good enough to tell us what he could.
"The owners have been in the valley since about '84," he said. "They have fruit farms as well as a packing house. Then they added juicing in 2022, and were licensed for cider in September of 2023.
"Our focus here is on reducing farm waste, to take stuff that might be a secondary product because of marks or what have you and turn it into something of value, like apple juice, fruit juices, wines and distilled products. We think we do a good job of it, and this will be our showcase for that."
Kitchen walked us through the enormous skeletal framework of the structure, pausing to point out the tasting room and commercial kitchen spaces.
And yes, it wasn't lost on us that Kitchen was showing us the kitchen.
"We hope to open for the 2024 tourist season," he said. "And if we can get going earlier than that, that's a bonus."
He described the Lass Chance patio as being a "big place where people can enjoy the weather" and added that there'll also be "accessibility" to the nearby trail system.
As for which flavours of ciders await, he mentioned apple, pear, peach, cherry and even apricot. And we don't think he'd finished.
"Basically anything that can be fermented we'll try at least once," he laughed, saying there’ll be plenty of juices and sodas and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic options too.
"There'll be a taproom with flights for tasting, as well as individual servings," he said. "We'll have a variety of cider styles and flavours, cider- and apple-based liqueurs, cocktails using ciders, apple brandy, and of course non-alcoholic drinks."
The details of the food menu, and indeed the date of the launch of food service, are still undecided. Ownership hopes it'll all be ready to go by the Lass Chance grand opening, but are cautious about over-promising.
Still, with an on-site commercial kitchen in the works and a reference to "wood-fired pizza" on the outdoor signage, food will clearly be part of the strategy at some point.
"The Lassers have been living here and participating in the community for years, "said Kitchen. "And this is a way to encourage tourism and help make Keremeos a destination."
The Lass Chance website is not yet operational, but their Instragram acocunt is. To access it, head here.
