Sampling the flavour of Kelowna’s main street
Okanagan Foodie Tours owner Nancy Quinton, left, serves bocconcini-cheese-and-watermelon salad skewers to Pam Miller and Janet Molen of Florida at The Munkey’s Fist, one of the stops on the company’s Bites on Bernard walking food tour. The tour of eateries along Kelowna’s main street is one of four offered by Okanagan Foodie Tours.
Fast-paced tour hits 9 restaurants on Bernard Avenue
Nine restaurants. Sixteen tasty dishes. Four downtown blocks. It all added up to 2 1/2 hours of culinary nirvana during a delicious afternoon on Okanagan Foodie Tours’ new Bites on Bernard walking excursion.
“We do three other foodie tours where we sit down everywhere and enjoy,” explained Okanagan Foodie Tours owner Nancy Quinton.
“But there are so many wonderful places on Bernard Avenue that we thought we’d offer a fastpaced tour that hits nine restaurants, some we’ll sit down at and some where we’ll stand up and eat. It’s fun taking your tastebuds on a walk.”
The Daily Courier’s summer newsroom intern, Cate Hanlon, and I joined Tuesday’s Bites on Bernard tour for a mouth-watering meander along the main street.
Pam Miller and Janet Molen, tourists from Florida, also came along.
“Perfect, I’m hungry,” said Miller when Quinton outlined our itinerary of multiple restaurant stops and even more food courses.
Our group met at The Sails sculpture at the foot of Bernard and got right to it a half-block later at Kelly O’Bryan’s.
Quinton acted as food runner and sprinted inside while we took a seat on the park bench.
Seconds later, Quinton appeared with McCracken rolls, one of the restaurant’s most popular appetizers of crab, shrimp and cream cheese stuffed in a crispy egg roll served with spicy dip. Delectable. Across the street and a little east, we propped ourselves on stools for bocconcini-cheese-andwatermelon salad skewers at The Munkey’s Fist.
From there, it was up, down and across the street to devour dishes at Bread Co. (banana bread); The Grateful Fed (deepfried macaroni and cheese called Mac Daddies); Korean barbecue joint Hoolala (fried chicken, sweet and sour chicken, rice balls and seasoned squid); Momo Sushi (spicy tuna and mango flower rolls); Sunny’s Diner (chicken and waffles with spicy maple syrup); and Salt & Brick (roastedsquash crostini).
“The deep-fried mac and cheese is always a big hit with everyone taking this tour,” said Quinton.
“But, then again, everything on this tour is curated to be tasty and crowd-pleasing.”
A meal, or a roving nosh-fest, isn’t complete without dessert.
So only a finale at Bliss Bakery would do for samplers of pecan chocolate tart, lemon square, gluten-free and vegan German chocolate cake and Affogato, the Italian drink of espresso over ice cream.
“Me and Sean always do food tours when we travel, so when we moved to Kelowna four years ago (after working for SaskTel and SaskEnergy, respectively, in Regina), we wanted to do a local food tour and discovered there wasn’t one,” said Quinton.
“So, we started Okanagan Foodie Tours.”
The company also offers Trendy Sopa, Cultural District and Patios & Pubs walking foodie tours.
Prices are $75 and $85 per person.
Check out OkanaganFoodieTours.ca.