KERGANO’S passionate about food and music
Culinary and musical adventures await the hungry in Moose Jaw
Looking for some culinary adventure? Take a drive to Moose Jaw and you’ll discover some places worth a taste.
A great dining spot is Kergano’s (71 High St.). Opened a year ago, it’s making its mark in this thriving community. Father and son team, Tim and Tyco Huska — who relocated from northern B.C. to set up the 50-seat open-kitchen restaurant — say they are building a revolution around their contagious passion for food and music.
“We’re in untamed territory,” says Tim.
“There’s nobody in our category in Moose Jaw.”
The place is becoming known for its food and as a venue for up and coming musicians. With its muted lighting, distressed spruce flooring, and slate tables, Kergano’s is dishing up fare made with local ingredients and produce, such as tomatoes, herbs, and strawberries from their basement hydroponic garden.
Central to their concept is integrity and respect: for the ingredients they use, their life values and how they participate in the community. Staff is hired based on whether they share these principles.
Their swirly logo — an intertwined flower of life, heart and peace sign — also reflects their philosophy.
“It oozes life,” says son, Tyco. “It makes you smile and think positive.”
Virtually everything on their menu is homemade including the dough for the hamburger buns, the stocks, all the desserts, and just about everything in between.
“Our biggest ingredient is passion,” says Tyco.
Popular items are the in-house smoked prime rib on fresh focaccia ($14.95) and the smoked chicken, ($14.95). Another hit is the 8 oz. gnarly burger ($14.95) topped with in-house smoked bacon.
The better than a Big Mac burger ($14.95) is a veggie burger with attitude. They won’t share the recipe, but let’s just say, this huge half-pound patty is made with everything but the kitchen sink. I challenge you to leave hungry.
The coco chicken burger ($14.95) is a surefire winner. I’d drive from Regina just to eat this! Solid breast meat is coated with panko breadcrumbs and shredded coconut. The outside is super crispy, the inside moist and tender. It’s topped with homemade eggless mayo, sweet chili sauce, julienned fresh apple, and chopped romaine. It’s so popular that one of their regulars refuses to try anything else off the menu.
The rack of lamb ($37) from the dinner menu is an ‘oh my’ experience. Even my dining partner, Moli, who claims to dislike lamb, couldn’t stop eating it!
The fennel and kosher salt rub creates a deliciously salty exterior with a hint of licorice, which fabulously compliments the prairie lamb.
It arrives with a tasty rice pilaf and roasted root vegetables, all drizzled with hot siracha, a soy-teriyaki reduction, and a generous grating of fresh orange rind.
End your meal with a thick slice of their dense but creamy New York cheesecake. They top it with saskatoons, chocolate sauce and a syrupy 18-year-old balsamic vinegar.
Open hours are 11:11 a.m. to 11:11 p.m. A quirky time indeed, but it’s a daily moment that Tyco and some special friends set their watch to, to think of each other and make a wish.
Be sure to work in a trip to the Oliv Tasting Room (14 High St.), just a few blocks east of Kergano’s. It opened last November and is definitely worth a visit.
Walk in and you’ll feel like you’ve entered a winery. The room is decked with wooden tables and shelves lined with hundreds of slender dark green bottles and gleaming stainless steel drums called fustis.
This is one cool spot! You can taste your way through roughly 80 varieties of plain and extract-infused extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegars.
Owners, Awie and Isabeau de Toit, have sourced premium oils from Greece, Italy, Spain and California, and vinegars from Modena, Italy.
The olive oils range from very mild to quite grassy, peppery and buttery. I particularly enjoyed the Leccino variety pressed from a cultivar from Tuscany, which is now planted in California. It’s robust with lots of peppery overtones and buttery accents. Try it with the dark and syrupy 18-year-old balsamic.
Everything is sold in 200 ml bottles. Prices range from $18.95 to $22.50.
They are open Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed Sundays.
On your way home, stop into Hub Meat Market (75 3rd Ave.), located a few blocks west of Kergano’s. Owner Bryce Downey, who this year won the Moose Jaw and District Chamber of Commerce Award for Customer Service, recently renovated the space and has loaded the brand new display cases with a beautiful array of fresh and cured meats. Try their mesquite smoked steaks or in-house made sausages.
Moose Jaw may be known for its mineral waters and Al Capone but there are some culinary rumblings worthy of our attention. Do you know of a spot worth writing about? Drop me a line at cj.katz@sasktel.net